Former health minister calls for digital pathway for alcohol addiction

Former health minister Dr Dan Poulter is calling for the urgent introduction of digital pathways to to tackle unprecedented capacity pressures on alcohol-related services. 

The addiction psychiatrist and associate medical director of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, wrote the foreword to a white paper recommending a redesign of alcohol services focused on digital, community-based withdrawal pathways.

Poulter, who was a health minister between September 2012 and May 2015, told Digital Health News: “We know that the current model isn’t working very well.

“We regularly see people with challenges intrinsically linked to alcohol who cannot engage effectively with existing services.

“There is an unmet need and digital offers an opportunity to better engage with a whole variety of patients,” he said.

The white paper, ‘Impact and barriers: a national survey of UK adults on alcohol dependence‘ published by addiction charity Adfam, the University of Sussex, and social enterprise Clean Slate Clinic in January, features results from a survey of 2,037 UK adults, conducted in December 2025.

It found that among higher-risk drinkers the main barriers to seeking support are NHS wait times (cited by 24.5% of respondents) and the stigma surrounding addiction (cited by 24.1%).

Poulter said that people can be reluctant to engage with face-to-face services because of shame, whereas digital-led services allow patients to seek advice discretely via email, messages, and apps.

“There is the opportunity to engage, understand the challenges, and then put in place a clear care plan about what the next steps look like for somebody who may need to be supported through a detox.

“One of the biggest reasons that people fall out of or drop out of programmes is often the challenge of getting to physical appointments, and we know that digital is a really good way to overcome that and improve compliance.

“I had some experience of greater use of digital in the NHS during the pandemic, and in a way we’ve lost some of that learning today,” he said.

Digital pathways include virtual medical screening, a medically supervised home detox with daily virtual clinician check-ins and long-term after care delivered through digital group sessions.

The white paper also recommends the development of family-inclusive pathways that allow concerned relatives to access advice, support assessment, and participate in treatment planning, with appropriate safeguards against coercion and domestic abuse.

Viv Evans, chief executive at Adfam, which works with people affected by others’ addictions, told Digital Health News that digital-led services can allow support from friends and family through tech-enabled platforms, despite barriers like geography, stigma, and estrangement.

“A digital service breaks through a lot of barriers that are inherent in our sector.

“Being able to participate online means that people can use and lean on those individuals who are their safe support system, even though they don’t necessarily live around the corner.

“Digital remote services open a whole range of possibilities that can only ultimately enhance and improve the support for a drinker and the family member,” she added.

Meanwhile, a partnership between X-on Health and alcohol charity Drinkaware, announced in October 2025, allows patients to be signposted to alcohol advice through the AI Surgery Assist chatbot used by GP surgeries.