Turning Point’s Clare Taylor discusses the need for continued government support for the 10-year drug strategy and the role of the sector in supporting an NHS fit for the future.
In his first statement as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting stated that ‘the NHS is broken’ with record waiting lists, overcrowded emergency departments and a discontented workforce. Day to day spending has increased over the last parliament although not in line with inflation.
How then, can the Government succeed in its mission, to build an NHS fit for the future, when its own economic forecasts conclude there is limited opportunity for serious investment in public services?
At Turning Point, we believe that better prevention and early intervention is key. NHS funding dwarfs the amount invested in public health services (£164.9 billion compared to £3.6 billion in 2024–25). Streeting himself, identifies strengthened prevention measures as an integral part of modernising the NHS.
According to the Institute for Alcohol Studies, the economic burden on the NHS of alcohol harm now stands at £4.9 billion, enough to pay the salaries of nearly half the nurses in England.
In 2021, the previous government published a 10-year drug strategy, backed with investment, aiming to address rising alcohol and drug harm and reduce strain on the NHS and wider health systems.
The new funding, coming on the back of 10 years of disinvestment, has increased the number of treatment places available and enabled services to step up outreach activity. For example, Turning Point now has mobile FibroScan equipment available in all its services. We run FibroScan clinics in GP surgeries, enabling us to identify poor liver health ensuring people get the treatment they need at an early stage and also helping build people’s motivation to address their drinking. Data from an early pilot showed around 20% of patients who were drinking at ‘harmful and hazardous’ levels, were successfully referred for treatment.
John (not his real name), was ambivalent about his alcohol use when he first came to Turning Point. Despite beginning each day with a drink at around 10am and regularly cancelling social engagements in order to continue drinking, John maintained his drinking was not problematic. However, a FibroScan showed that his liver was beginning to fail. This served as a wake-up-call regarding the real damage alcohol was causing to his body and served as motivating factor behind his application for detox and rehab.
Substance use is fundamentally a public health issue. An NHS that is ‘fit for the future’ requires a shift in resources to public health initiatives focussed on prevention and early intervention. Despite the progress that has been made in the first three years of the 10-year drug strategy, there is still much more to be done if we are to reduce the strain placed on the NHS as a result of alcohol and drug use. This is why it is vital that the new government uses the Budget and the Spending Review to commit to continued investment in the drug and alcohol treatment sector. Re-building the drug and alcohol sector means building towards a stronger, more resilient NHS.
Clare Taylor is Chief Operating Officer at Turning Point and Interim Chair of Collective Voice, the sector body representing third sector drug treatment providers
This blog was originally published by Turning Point. You can read the original post here.
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