Severe alcohol-related liver disease admissions post-COVID-19 lockdown: canary in the coal mine?
Zillah Cargill, Sajith Kattiparambil, Navjyot Hansi, Ashley Barnabas, Debbie L. Shawcross, Roger Williams, Kosh Agarwal
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic presents significant complexities for adapting health care provision to our chronic liver disease patients. Concerns have been raised that patients with alcohol-use disorders may be severely impacted and vulnerable during ‘lockdown’. Community alcohol and drug services were greatly disrupted during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and provision of support to patients significantly reduced. Staffing of these services was diminished and social distancing measures made provision of detoxification services challenging. In England in 2018/2019, there were 1.26 million hospital admissions related to alcohol consumption.1 The continued burden of liver disease from excess alcohol, with increasing numbers of hospital admissions particularly in deprived areas of the UK, has been repeatedly highlighted by the Lancet Commission into liver disease.2 In the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of National Statistics …