Helen Whately corrected a written answer on Liver Diseases: Screening

11 July 2023 · Commons written answer · Department of Health and Social Care

Peter Gibson (Conservative, Darlington) asked written question 186182 on 22 May 2023. Helen Whately answered on 30 May 2023 for the Department of Health and Social Care, and Helen Whately corrected the answer on 11 July 2023. The corrected text no longer gives the figure 100. Altogether 30 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing FibroScans in primary care to improve early diagnosis of non-alcohol related fatty liver disease.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential merits of introducing FibroScans in primary care to improve early diagnosis of non-alcohol related fatty liver disease. However, a practice has clinical discretion to decide if a FibroScan is necessary and appropriate for a patient and can either provide directly or through a provider, typically a hospital out-patient appointment. In addition, NHS England have confirmed they have begun to assess the introduction of FibroScans through Community Diagnostic Centres. £2.3 billion is being spent to increase the number of Centres ~~diagnosing liver disease to at least 100 sites~~ by March ~~2025.~~ This will boost ~~diagnostic~~ capacity to diagnose liver disease and improve earlier diagnosis and health outcomes.	The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential merits of introducing FibroScans in primary care to improve early diagnosis of non-alcohol related fatty liver disease. However, a practice has clinical discretion to decide if a FibroScan is necessary and appropriate for a patient and can either provide directly or through a provider, typically a hospital out-patient appointment. In addition, NHS England have confirmed they have begun to assess the introduction of FibroScans through Community Diagnostic Centres. £2.3 billion is being spent to increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres by March 2025, these centres will offer a range of services, with some providing services to support liver diagnosis . This will boost capacity to diagnose liver disease and improve earlier diagnosis and health outcomes.

Original

Corrected

The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential merits of introducing FibroScans in primary care to improve early diagnosis of non-alcohol related fatty liver disease. However, a practice has clinical discretion to decide if a FibroScan is necessary and appropriate for a patient and can either provide directly or through a provider, typically a hospital out-patient appointment.
In addition, NHS England have confirmed they have begun to assess the introduction of FibroScans through Community Diagnostic Centres. £2.3 billion is being spent to increase the number of Centres ~~diagnosing liver disease to at least 100 sites~~ by March ~~2025.~~ This will boost ~~diagnostic~~ capacity to diagnose liver disease and improve earlier diagnosis and health outcomes.

The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential merits of introducing FibroScans in primary care to improve early diagnosis of non-alcohol related fatty liver disease. However, a practice has clinical discretion to decide if a FibroScan is necessary and appropriate for a patient and can either provide directly or through a provider, typically a hospital out-patient appointment.
In addition, NHS England have confirmed they have begun to assess the introduction of FibroScans through Community Diagnostic Centres. £2.3 billion is being spent to increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres by March 2025, these centres will offer a range of services, with some providing services to support liver diagnosis . This will boost capacity to diagnose liver disease and improve earlier diagnosis and health outcomes.

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1639305?expandMember=true
Date read	15 October 2026
SHA-256	`88a5ab4781cd7016fe41edfeb465967e264c59501a2dbe1a6a7325fa92b2a668`