Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent on educational programmes for GPs on the potential health risks associated with gambling in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, (3) 2017, and (4) 2018; and what plans they have to increase the budget for such programmes.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Health Education England funds and delivers the GP Speciality Training Programmes as part of the Royal College of General Practitioners curriculum. The Government does not collect information on the amount of time and funding allocated to training on specific conditions or issues including gambling harms.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 1 October 2018 (HL10396), what was the breakdown by gender of gambling addiction-related hospital admissions in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics collects the volume of finished admissions episodes (FAEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of pathological/compulsive gambling and volumes for the last five years, broken down by gender is shown in the following table.
Year | Male | Female |
2013-14 | 54 | 11 |
2014-15 | 79 | 10 |
2015-16 | 70 | 16 |
2016-17 | 57 | 15 |
2017-18 | 92 | 15 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Digital
Notes:
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the trips to a hospital or safe place made by the police or ambulance crews were connected with gambling problems associated with mental health in (1) 2013, (2) 2014, (3) 2015, (4) 2016, (5) 2017, and (6) 2018.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
NHS England is not responsible for the provision of general practitioner training. The standard of medical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC) and the training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the relevant medical Royal College, which has to meet standards set by the GMC. Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they instead emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients. NHS England expects clinicians to use their professional judgement with patients presenting with particular symptoms and keep up to date with current developments and treatments.
Information on the number of trips to a hospital or safe place made by police or ambulance crews connected with gambling associated with mental health are not collected centrally.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what training NHS England provided for GPs to support those affected by gambling-related harm in (1) 2013, (2) 2014, (3) 2015, (4) 2016, (5) 2017, and (6) 2018; and what plans they have to increase the level of training provided.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
NHS England is not responsible for the provision of general practitioner training. The standard of medical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC) and the training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the relevant medical Royal College, which has to meet standards set by the GMC. Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they instead emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients. NHS England expects clinicians to use their professional judgement with patients presenting with particular symptoms and keep up to date with current developments and treatments.
Information on the number of trips to a hospital or safe place made by police or ambulance crews connected with gambling associated with mental health are not collected centrally.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what specialist treatment is available to children with gambling problems, in particular to support any associated mental health issues.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government is committed to supporting all those identified as suffering from problems with gambling. Dedicated treatment for gambling disorders is commissioned by GambleAware who fund the National Gambling Helpline and commission a national network of treatment services, mostly through GamCare, which are locally accessible across Great Britain and are available to people of any age, including young people. Children with gambling problems can also access treatment in primary and secondary care, which includes specialised mental health services.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they estimate gambling-related harm cost the NHS in England in (1) 2013, (2) 2014, (3) 2015, (4) 2016, and (5) 2017.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government has made no estimate of the cost of gambling related harm to the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 1 October (HL10396), what was the geographical breakdown of gambling-related hospital admissions for each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The volume of finished admissions episodes (FAEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of pathological gambling for the last five years, by commissioning region of treatment, is shown in the following table.
Commissioning Region of Treatment | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
North of England Commissioning Region | 25 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 25 |
Midlands and East of England Commissioning Region | 10 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 20 |
London Commissioning Region | 15 | 35 | 35 | 40 | 50 |
South of England Commissioning Region | 15 | 20 | 10 | * | 15 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital
Notes:
A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
In order to protect patient confidentiality '*' appears in the table for all sub-national breakdowns, where it is possible to calculate a value between one and seven from the data presented. All other sub-national data has been rounded to the nearest five.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Education Policy Institute Access to children and young people's mental health services—2018, published 7 October, which states that the number of referrals to specialist child and adolescent mental health services in England has increased by 26 per cent over the last five years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
It is not possible to assess any meaningful trend in referral data. The current data available through the mental health services monthly statistics releases are experimental data and the data quality and coverage is improving over time.
The information in the Education Policy Institute’s report is based on 54 Freedom of Information responses. We cannot be certain whether the 54 responses received are representative of all providers. It is difficult therefore to be confident in the rise in referrals suggested in the report.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following Public Health England’s estimate in its guidance Alcohol and drug prevention, treatment and recovery: why invest? published on 12 February, that for every £1 invested in local alcohol treatment provision £3 is saved in wider social costs, what estimate they make of the savings to wider social costs for every £1 invested in local gambling treatment provision.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government has made no estimate of the wider social cost savings for every pound invested in local gambling treatment provision. Public Health England has been asked to conduct a review of the evidence of the health aspects of gambling-related harm to inform action on prevention and treatment. The Government will reflect carefully on the outcome from this work in future policy development.
Asked by: Lord Chadlington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many hospital admissions in the last five years they estimate were linked to gambling addiction.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The volume of finished admissions episodes (FAEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of pathological/compulsive gambling for the last five years is shown in the following table.
Year | FAEs |
2013-14 | 65 |
2014-15 | 89 |
2015-16 | 86 |
2016-17 | 72 |
2017-18 | 107 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Digital
A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.