Drinkaware partners with X-on Health
Drinkaware is delighted to announce a new partnership with X-on Health, one of the UK’s leading providers of digital front door solutions for primary care.
The collaboration will see signposting to Drinkaware’s evidence-based resources integrated directly into X-on Health’s AI Surgery Assist chatbot, used by GP surgeries across the whole of the UK.
Whether a patient mentions alcohol in relation to prescriptions, mental health or general wellbeing, Surgery Assist will recognise the query and direct them to Drinkaware content such as the Drinking Check, advice on how to moderate your drinking, or mental health guidance. This early, non-judgemental intervention ensures patients receive timely support while helping practices preserve clinical time for more complex needs. By embedding Drinkaware signposting into early interactions, practices can offer meaningful guidance immediately, while preserving clinician time for more other appointments.
This integration supports the NHS’s shift toward preventative, community-first care, as outlined in the ‘Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England’. With alcohol-related hospital admissions in England estimated at over one million in 2023/24, alcohol remains a significant but often under-recognised driver of patient demand, from anxiety and sleep disruption to long-term harm.
Karen Tyrell, CEO at the charity Drinkaware, said: “Supporting people to make informed choices about their drinking is our mission at Drinkaware. We are therefore delighted to be working with X-on Health and GP practices in this new initiative to signpost people to our tools and advice through the NHS digital front door. It is exactly the type of collaboration the NHS Ten Year plan envisages, using AI and digital tools to help GP surgeries reduce demand.”
Sharon Hanley, Director of Primary Care at X-on Health, said: “Primary care is the front door to the NHS and working to support the wider community is so important, aligning directly to the neighbourhood health aspirations of the NHS 10 Year Plan. We’re proud to partner with Drinkaware in this initiative and plan to introduce further approaches to support local communities in the future.”
X-on Health is a specialist division of Southern Communications Group with over 20 years of experience and expertise in the delivery of solutions tailored to the needs of GP practices. As the leading supplier of digital telephony to GPs across England, X-on Health provides digital telephony services to over 60% of England’s GP practices. For more details, visit the X-on website at www.x-on.co.uk