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The
Medical Council on Alcohol
- what on earth is that?
Is it
the body which decides whether and when and under what conditions an
addicted doctor can continue to practice? No, that is the Health Committee
of the General Medical Council, but you would be surprised at the number of
telephone calls for the General Medical Council we get.
Well,
is it an organization of doctors interested in alcohol? It is true that
it was founded by doctors, in 1967, and they are interested in alcohol, not
simply to pursue an academic or personal consuming interest though, but
"for the benefit of the community to provide an organization of
registered medical pratitioners with a view to co-ordination of effort, the
better understanding of alcoholism and its prevention and the treatment and
after-care of alcoholics" (Memorandum of Association).
Is it
exclusively for doctors then? Certainly not! of the
approximately 370 members over a third are associate members, that is to
say individuals who are not registered medical practitioners, or have group
membership, like drug and alcohol teams or probation services. Nearly all
have a professional interest in alcohol and alcoholism. It is probably fair
to say therefore that the Medical Council on Alcohol is not just the voice
of the medical profession on alcoholism but also the voice of the alcohol
professionals on the effects of alcohol on health.
Amongst
the doctors there is a tremendous range of expertise, including
gastroenterologists, cardiologists, pathologists, psychiatrists,
occupational physicians, public health and accident and emergency
specialists. Therein lies one of the strengths of the Medical Council on
Alcohol since many of these are our Regional Advisers scattered throughout
the United Kingdom, for the most part in the principal medical schools where
about a third are professors in their specialty.
How is
this expertise harnessed? The network of Regional Advisers is
engaged in promoting alcohol education in the medical school curricula in
competition with a stream of other topics clamouring for attention. Of
course their knowledge and enthusiasm informs their own teaching, and they
make their particular expertise available when needed, for example in the
preparation of a Health Education Authority leaflet or when dealing with
the hundreds of enquiries which the Medical Council on Alcohol receives
from the public, particularly the media. Some of the latter are tiresomely
demanding but others result in thoughtful well-informed pieces which reach
a wide audience, thus enabling us to fulfill our mission which is to be
"committed to improving medical understanding of alcohol related
problems".
All
members, Full and Associate, contribute to this mission to a lesser or
greater extent. Some do so more particularly through their authorship of
material in the Medical Council on Alcohol's own publications such as the
bi-monthly newsletter Alcoholis or the handbook for nurses, midwives
and health visitors titled Alcohol and Health, or by membership of
one or other of the five committees currently active. For example the
Education and Public Health Committee has just generated a leaflet Taking Care of Alcohol Issues at Work designed for
small businesses which do not have an Occupational Health Service and which
are often unaware of what needs to be done in this area to protect their
employees and their business. This has gone go to all 130,000 members of
the Federation of Small Businesses for a start, and copies are available to
a variety of other interested parties such as the individual and group
members of the Medical Council on Alcohol and their contacts.
A word
about what we do not do at the moment. Sadly our funds do not permit us to
engage extensively in the "treatment and after-care of
alcoholics" as our Memorandum of Association indicates that we should,
though alcoholics, their families, friends and colleagues, do use us as a
sort of helpline adn we do what we can in that respect. This is especially
true for healthcare workers, and we are an official contact point for the
British Doctor' and Dentists' Group, a support group of recovering medical
and dental drug and alcohol users.
Nor are
we campaigners. Others can do this better than us. This does not mean that
we do not give an informed view on appropriate occasions. For example we
contributed to the preparatory work on the Department of Health's Sensible
Drinking report and to the National Strategy for Alcohol
prepared by Alcohol Concern also for the Department of Health.
The
Medical Council on Acoholism used to commission research
but again our funding does not generally permit this now. However we have
recently contributed a considerable sum towards a research project aiming
to discover by reliable measurement what effect, if any, alcohol has on the
dexterity of surgeons engaged in minimal invasive surgery.
If you
would like to share in our work, or just visit our small library contact us.
last
modified: 27 November 2007
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MCA
On-line
Did you know you can now access the abstracts from our
journal Alcohol and Alcoholism over
the web?
And subscibers have access to the full journal articles.
Previous editions
of the MCA newsletter Alcoholis are available free of charge
on-line.
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