A medical team led by an NRI doctor has won Britain's prestigious 'Hospital Doctor Award' for 2008 for their work in providing better health care services to drug addicts. The team of Dr Sanju George was selected for setting up facilities to dispense substitute treatment for the substance abusers admitted at the Specialist Addiction Unit in Bosworth Medical Centre Mental Health Clinic in Solihull.

Dr George, who hails from Kochi, is a consultant in addiction psychiatry at The Bridge, the specialist drug service in Solihull, which is part of the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust (BSMHT) in West Midlands.

Dr George said: "I was delighted to receive the award. This gives recognition to a unique partnership between GPs (general practitioners), nurses, local pharmacists and senior managers in the Drug Action Team, Care Trust and at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust.

"I am grateful to my team at The Bridge for their hard work and their support. Patients are thrilled with the new system and more Solihull GPs are now prepared to take on prescribing for their own patients." Faced with difficulties in persuading many local general practitioners to treat their own drug users, Dr George and two experienced GPs, Dr Wallace and Dr Saikia, created the award-winning interim arrangement.

The two GPs would provide a shared care service for all the other GPs' patients with the support of the consultant and two dedicated community psychiatric nurses.

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