Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to help reduce stigma in respect of liver disease.
The National Health Service ‘Better Health’ campaign aims to promote greater awareness of liver disease and its main causes. The former Public Health England published ‘Better care for people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol/drug use conditions: A guide for commissioners and service providers’ which addresses potential issues of stigma and mistrust and other barriers preventing patients from accessing treatment.
From 1 April 2022, NHS England has introduced a Commissioning for Quality and Innovation measure to incentivise providers to improve earlier detection of liver disease for alcohol dependent in-patients. In addition, £27 million has been invested to establish specialist alcohol care teams in the 25% of hospitals with the highest rates of alcohol dependence-related admissions.