May's LGT Stars of the Month!
We are excited to announce that the Alcohol Care and Substance Misuse Team at University Hospital Lewisham (UHL) are our LGT Stars of the Month for May 2024.
The team is a group of specialists who support patients at LGT who struggle with alcohol or substance addiction.
The team was nominated for the ‘All Stars Team Award’, and here is why:
“The service at UHL has only been running since February 2023 and has already brought at least £270k of savings to LGT in its first year.
"As a result of the team's efforts, bed days and reattendance at LGT have been significantly reduced, and patients have been properly signposted to services so that longer admissions may not be required. They support patients with effective treatments such as Opiate Substitution Therapy, which saves 880 lives every year in the UK.
"In the past year, the team has trained over 300 colleagues to identify heavy drinking among hospital patients, leading to an early detection and intervention for liver disease. On average, a new patient is referred to the drug and alcohol treatment team five times a day.
"With the help of council commissioners and community teams, the team has admitted high-risk repeat attendees directly to residential rehab programmes. They have also recently secured additional funding from the council for a specialist drug nurse.
"Congratulations to the team. I believe they are worthy winners of this award."
Dr Laura Blackmore, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Clinical Lead of the Alcohol Care Team said: "It is wonderful to be celebrated and receive the LGT Star of the Month award. We would like to say thanks to everyone at LGT who has been so supportive of our team since we started here. The £100 voucher and fruit basket are a really welcome addition to our office, and we are appreciative.”
Peter Barnes, Head of PTS South East London, HATS Group, who chaired this month’s judging panel commented: “It's fantastic to see how the team has helped LGT reduce the number of admissions and average length of stay per patient. Furthermore, it's great to see that their initiatives are benefiting patients by getting them to rehab earlier, which improves their health/recovery and lowers the readmission rate."