Bradford Royal Infirmary has employed a team of specialist alcohol workers to help identify patients with drinking problems and offer them support.

People who arrive at the hospital’s Accident and Emergency department intoxicated will be given an appointment to see an alcohol professional to discuss their drinking.

Doctors and nurses who work in the department frequently have to deal with people who have alcohol problems.

Sue Morris, an alcohol clinical nurse specialist, who works as part of a team of three at the hospital, said: “Everyone who comes to A&E is offered the opportunity to fill out a questionnaire about their alcohol consumption. This enables us to identify people with a problem and those who would benefit from some help are then referred to our alcohol team.

“More severe cases can be referred for hospital treatment. Others may be directed towards local voluntary organisations for assistance and others may just benefit from some structured advice.

“Some 15,000 people in Bradford are dependent on alcohol. By getting to people early, we are confident we will be able to reduce the number of people with alcohol-related problems generally.

“If we can get to people before they reach the dependency stage we will be able to save the NHS a lot of money by reducing the need for lots of expensive alcohol-related hospital procedures as well as improving the life of the individual.”

Paul Johnstone, regional director for public health at NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “People who turn up to A&E drunk take up a large portion of the time staff have to deal with patients. By using alcohol clinical nurse specialists we will be able to make A&E better for everyone.”

The recommended daily alcohol limit is two to three units a day for women and three to four units a day for men. A large glass of wine contains three units and an average pint of beer contains two units, as does a double gin and tonic.