Management Plan for: (1) Acute Alcohol Intoxication and (2) Poisoning of unknown drug ingestion
Dear University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust,
I would like to request the management plans your trust has in place for patients who present to the emergency department for:
1.) Acute alcohol intoxication (i.e. when a patient present to the emergency department heavily under the influence of alcohol).
2.) Potential poisoning of an unknown drug (i.e. when a patient presents to the emergency department declaring that they believe they were 'spiked' with an unknown drug).
If there isn't an exact management plan for the scenarios described above, please would you detail how your emergency department would deal with any patient that presents with either of the two concerns.
Yours faithfully,
Adam Jenkins
Our reference: FOI 2110 2021/22
Dear Adam Jenkins,
Thank you for your request for information. The Trust's response is provided in the attached document.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) completed a merger by acquisition of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) on 1st April 2018.
UHB is one of the largest teaching hospital trusts in England, serving a regional, national and international population. It includes Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Solihull Hospital and Community Services, Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham Chest Clinic. We also run a number of smaller satellite units, allowing people to be treated as close to home as possible. We see and treat more than 2.2 million people every year across our sites and our hospitals deliver more babies than anywhere else in Europe. We employ 20,000 staff and have an annual turnover of nearly £1.5 billion.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to request a review of our decision, you should email [email address] or write to the Information Governance Lead, Corporate Affairs, 3rd Floor, Nuffield House, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, B15 2GW
If you are not content with the outcome of your review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by our Trust. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45 or www.ico.org.uk
Kind regards,
Freedom of Information Team
Dear FOI,
Thank you for getting back to me very quickly and sending through the number of attachments. I have read all the attachments in great detail and feel like my questions are still not been addressed.
To be more specific, I am asking for:
1. The management plan for an Adult who presents to A&E with acute alcohol intoxication (i.e. very drunk).
2. The management plan for an Adult who presents to A&E with poisoning of an unknown substance (i.e. been spiked).
In you initial reply, you have provided attachments for Acute Alcohol Withdrawal; Alcohol hepatitis etc and you have given the management plan for poisoning of an unknown substance where the indications aren't for an adult.
To put it simply, I would like to know you guidelines to healthcare staff at your hospital (specifically QE if possible) if an adult patient (e.g. a university student) present to A&E that is incapacitated from alcohol and/or has declared that they think they have been spiked with an unknown drug. What is your procedure for dealing with such patients?
I look forward to hearing from you and hope you can be a bit more specific in your reply to the concerns I have addressed.
Yours sincerely,
Jason James
Hi Jason,
We have reviewed our response which gave you on the 22 March 2022 and we have not found any other documents that would provide you with the information you requested.
Regards,
FOI Team
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