Events
Event Information
Remote Event
Wed 14-Oct-2026, Microsoft Teams
Failure to recognise alcohol dependence or manage it safely during an acute hospital admission can have serious and potentially lifelong consequences. For clinical negligence solicitors, these cases raise questions about assessment, withdrawal management, prescribing, monitoring and whether opportunities to prevent harm were missed.
In this webinar, Hazel Peet, Advanced Clinical Practitioner and independent nurse expert, will explore what happens when alcohol-use disorders are overlooked or inadequately treated in the acute setting.
Using case examples, the session will examine recognition of alcohol dependence and withdrawal risk, treatment and monitoring decisions, falls, and the identification and management of Wernicke’s encephalopathy. It will also consider the potentially lifelong consequences of Korsakoff syndrome and the resulting care and support needs.
The focus will be on what solicitors should look for in the medical records: the alcohol history obtained, risk assessments undertaken, medication prescribed and administered, monitoring completed, and the response to changes in the patient’s condition.
Hazel will explore how expert evidence can help distinguish the effects of pre-existing alcohol-use disorders from harm associated with failures in care, and identify the questions that matter when considering breach and causation.
This session will help you to:
- Identify missed opportunities to recognise alcohol dependence and withdrawal risk during an acute admission.
- Examine potential failures in withdrawal treatment, prescribing, medication administration, monitoring and escalation.
- Recognise the relevance of Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome to claims involving lasting neurological harm.
- Review medical and nursing records for evidence of inadequate assessment or management.
- Frame focused questions for experts when investigating breach, causation and potentially avoidable harm.
- Understand how lasting consequences may inform condition, prognosis and future care evidence.
About the Speaker
Mrs Hazel Peet
Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Registered Adult Nurse and Independent Nurse Prescriber
Mrs Hazel Peet is an Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Registered Adult Nurse and Independent Nurse Prescriber with over 18 years of clinical experience across acute hospital, community, urgent care and primary care settings, together with five years of medico-legal experience. Hazel practises as an Independent Expert Witness and accepts instructions from claimant, defendant and joint parties in clinical negligence, personal injury, inquest, professional regulatory and criminal matters. Her medico-legal work includes screening reports, breach of duty and causation reports, condition and prognosis reports, care reports, care and equipment reports, loss of service reports and inquest reports.