New guidance published this week by the Royal
College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of
Psychiatrists highlights the need for services to employ teams with
the right mix of skills and clinical expertise to support the
recovery of people with drug and alcohol problems.
Delivering quality
care for drug and alcohol users: the roles and competencies of
doctors provides a clear analysis of the medical
competencies involved in working with drug and alcohol users. It is
also intended as timely assistance in the transition towards new
commissioning arrangements for drug and alcohol services next
year.
The guide acknowledges the crucial importance
of adequate supervision and clinical governance in providing safe
and effective care to service users. It will help
commissioners, employers and others to meet their legal and
regulatory requirements and provide a high quality service to all
those seeking recovery, including those with more complex
needs. The guide will also help doctors working in the sector
to ensure that they are meeting General Medical Council
requirements on revalidation.
Doctors supporting drug or alcohol users come
from a variety of medical backgrounds (mainly General Practice and
Psychiatry) and have varying degrees of specialist competency. The
guide identifies three levels of competency that apply across all
doctors:
- generalist – eg: GPs and
doctors in emergency departments
- intermediate – eg: GPs with
special clinical interests or extended roles
- specialist – eg: addiction
psychiatrists
The guide maps out how levels of competency
relate to service user needs, and to available training and
qualifications. It also draws out broader implications for
commissioning drug and alcohol services and will be an important
reference for Responsible Officers, who are appointed by healthcare
providers to support the process of doctors’ revalidation.
Dr Emily Finch, Clinical Director for
Addictions at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and
chair of the working group that produced the report,
said: “High quality evidence-based medical treatment can be a
key part of recovery. As with any other area of medicine, it
must be delivered by doctors with the right competencies to work
safely and achieve the best possible outcomes.
“Doctors with generalist, intermediate and
specialist levels of competency in this field all have an important
role to play, and this report should help ensure they are all
deployed in the right way so that everyone – including the most
vulnerable - gets the care they need.”
Dr Linda Harris, Medical Director of RCGP
Substance Misuse and Associated Health, welcomed the report,
saying: “This guidance builds on the excellent work established
across the two Royal Colleges to champion clinical excellence in
the treatment of substance misuse disorders. The revised competency
framework illustrates how primary care professionals can make a
proactive contribution to the recovery of people with drug or
alcohol problems, setting out the associated training and support
needed to deliver such important extended roles.”
For further information, please
contact:
Liz Leicester
or Deborah Hart in the Communications
Department.
Telephone: 020 7235 2351 Extensions. 6298 or 6127