Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the geographic distribution of secondary care hepatology services in England.

In 2017, Public Health England published ‘The 2nd Atlas of variation in risk factors and healthcare for liver disease in England’, which collated the distribution of liver services by hospital trusts in England. The services were categorised through criteria such as adequate staffing levels and assessed against liver disease hospital admission and population mortality rates.

The Atlas showed variation in levels of current provision of liver disease services as defined by whole time equivalent staffing levels, with 16 district general hospitals meeting the criteria for an adequately staffed acute service. The maps illustrated the need for greater provision of liver services in the deprived areas with the highest rates of liver disease morbidity and mortality.