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Bristol Primary Care Liaison (formerly Shared Care) - (DRAFT)

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Service Overview

From 1st April 2025, drug and alcohol support for the people of Bristol is delivered by Horizons – Bristol’s Drug & Alcohol Partnership. This replaces the previous system known as Bristol ROADS.

Horizons is a partnership of 9 different organisations including:

Turning Point
Bristol Drugs Project
One25
The Nelson Trust
Southmead Development Trust
The Southmead Project
Hawkspring
The Wellspring Settlement
Release

GPs can refer patients, or patients can be advised to contact BDP's Harm Reduction Centre detailed below.

The treatment service is a partnership between GPs, who prescribe substitute medication and other clinical services such as blood borne virus testing and treatment, pharmacists providing supervised consumption of controlled medication, and Primary Care Liaison Workers from Horizons who provide holistic support through regular appointments to enable individuals to make positive changes.

The Primary Care Liaison service can now also support patients with mild to moderate alcohol dependence to detox within primary care.

The GP and Pharmacy element of the service is subject to Public Health Service agreements which are managed through Bristol City Council’s Substance Misuse Team.

Referrals

****New Referral Process from April 2025****

To make a referral, please complete the online form which can be accessed below:

https://www.horizonsbristol.co.uk/get-started/gp-referral

Referrers will be able to offer the patient an assessment appointment before they leave the consultation. Alternatively, this can be delegated to practice admin teams.

Urine drug screen - Horizons are able to dip test Urine Drug Screens at assessment so these are not needed with a referral.

Blood borne virus testing and immunisation for hepatitis B should be arranged.

Referral Contact:

Primary Care Liaison enquiries (Horizons):

Tel: 0300 555 1469

Bristolinfo@horizonsbristol.co.uk

Referral Guidance & Criteria

Eligibility Criteria:

Aged 18 and over
Patients whose main presenting problem is opiate use.
Patients with mild to moderate alcohol dependence able to be detoxed in 4-6 weeks within Primary Care.

Contacts

Horizons’ Registered Manager

Justin Hoggans

Tel: 0300 555 1469

Justin.Hoggans@turning-point.co.uk

Substance Misuse Commissioning Lead

Olwen Kelly

Tel: 07828 081359

Olwen.kelly@bristol.gov.uk

Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.

Information provided through Remedy is continually updated so please be aware any printed copies may quickly become out of date.