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Local heroin addicts' lives will be saved thanks to an award-winning drug misuse service20 November 2008Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust has received national recognition for a service designed to save the lives of 'Class A' drug users. The risk of death among injecting heroin addicts is 22 times higher than that in the normal population. In the Solihull area alone there were 11 deaths from heroin overdoses between 2004 and 2006. The Bridge Substance Misuse Service (part of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust) wanted to develop a service to treat heroin and cocaine addicts with the objective of having no preventable deaths by overdose. Dr Sanju George, consultant psychiatrist at The Bridge and his team, worked with agencies, patients and carers to introduce new initiatives to treat The Bridge's 400 patients. These covered areas from prevention, training and education through to screening and fast-tracking of high risk patients into treatment. Dr George and his team have also trained users and carers in overdose management and the administration of naloxone (an opiate antidote) injections which can provide a life-saving 15 minutes in the event of a heroin overdose. As a result of the new systems, no patient has died from an overdose in the last year and others identified with potentially serious illnesses have received life-saving treatment. Following its success, the initiative is now being replicated across other treatment services. These significant achievements have been recognised by the Bupa Foundation, winning the medical research charity's Patient Safety Award 2008. Dr George, said: "Patient safety is the most important aspect in medicine for the private and public sectors. The Bupa Foundation win reinforces this priority and will be a massive support to our work in the NHS. Saving one life makes all our hard work worthwhile but this award means that more lives will be saved not just at our centre but across Solihull borough." Bupa's group medical director and vice-chairman of the Bupa Foundation, Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, added: "The treatment of heroin addicts can sometimes be a neglected and stigmatised issue. This team developed a service that raises awareness of this high risk group and significantly improves patient safety." Dr George received his Bupa Foundation award at a ceremony at Lincoln's Inn in London on the evening of 12 November 2008. For more information about the Bupa Foundation awards, visit www.bupafoundation.com Back to the latest press releases
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