New specialist nurses funded as part of a £1 million investment to tackle the harm caused by alcohol will work to identify some of the estimated 17,000 people across Bradford who are damaging their health through booze.

Two frontline nurses at Bradford District Care Trust will work in Airedale Hospital’s accident and emergency department, as well as on wards, to advise those who might be putting their health at risk by drinking too much.

In 2010, a study by NHS Bradford and Airedale estimated there were 92,000 ‘hazardous’ drinkers in the Bradford district and, of those, 17,000 were ‘harmful’ drinkers, actively harming their health.

Bradford and Airedale’s new NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) pledged to make tackling alcohol abuse a priority during last year’s Alcohol Awareness Week, when it announced they would invest cash in more specialist nurses and support staff.

Fiona Shippey, one of the new alcohol clinical nurse specialists at Bradford District Care Trust, along with Sam McMahon, said: “It’s important people understand the impact of their drinking and we can suggest ways they can make changes and cut down their alcohol intake.

“Working in A&E and on the wards gives us a great opportunity to get across important health messages about alcohol consumption and make referrals where necessary.”

The nurses will work with clinicians at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust to identify and advise patients over 18. The same initiative has been running at Bradford Royal Infirmary for five years and last year saw nurses ‘screen’ 39,000 patients.

Of those, 1,224 received support including brief advice, health education or a clinic appointment with the trust’s alcohol care team.

The hospitals’ alcohol care teams work with specialist alcohol workers from other partner organisations including the Piccadilly Project, Horton Housing and Project 6.

Michael Smith, emergency department unit manager at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “If we can get to people before they reach dependency stage we will be able to reduce the number of people with alcohol-related problems and save the NHS money locally.”

e-mail: hannah.postles@telegraphandargus.co.uk Twitter: @HannahP_TandA