Abstract
The Cardiff Alcohol Treatment Centre (ATC) aims to provide additional capacity to offset the high volume of acutely intoxicated individuals currently attending University Hospital of Wales Emergency Department and who, in consequence, reduce service capacity across ambulance, police and health services with broader implications for the Cardiff community. The ATC was open two evenings each week, targeted at times when attendance for alcoholrelated harm was expected to be high.The ATC pilot successfully diverted patients away from the Emergency Department and was therefore associated with a significant reduction in alcohol-related attendances, a significant reduction in ambulance referrals to the Emergency Department and a significant decrease in ambulance handover times at the Emergency Department. However, evidence also suggests that the additional capacity provided by the ATC across the pilot period was associated with an increase in demand for health services, possibly due pre-existing to unmet need in the night time economy.
