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Ashley Dalton MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London, SW1H 0EU
March 2025
Dear Minister,
It’s time to act on liver health.
For too long successive governments have ignored liver disease. Death rates from liver disease are 4 times higher than they were in 1970[i]. Over 18,000 people die from liver disease and liver cancer each year in the UK, and three-quarters of people with liver disease are diagnosed in A&E when it’s too late for effective treatment[ii]. Yet 90% of liver disease is preventable. If liver disease is diagnosed early, it can often be reversed through lifestyle changes. Liver disease also disproportionately impacts our most deprived and marginalised communities.
Only 10 of 160 CDCs currently offer liver scans (FibroScan)[iii]. There is no incentive, like the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), to drive patient improvements in primary care. There is no national pathway for the early detection of liver disease leading to significant variations in care across the UK.
This is why I’m backing the British Liver Trust’s campaign for more funding to be made available for early detection of liver disease in community settings as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review.
As one of the British Liver Trust’s patient advocates Sara said, ““Losing my dad to fatty liver disease was heart-breaking because it could have been prevented. If he’d been diagnosed early, Dad would be alive today.” Sara lives in St Helen’s which has the highest rate of premature deaths from liver disease in England – almost double the national average.
I look forward to your response to the British Liver Trust’s campaign for funding for early detection of liver disease to be brought forward in the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Sincerely,
Member of Parliament
[i] Williams R, Aspinall R, Bellis M, et al. Addressing liver disease in the UK: a blueprint for attaining excellence in health care and reducing premature mortality from lifestyle issues of excess consumption of alcohol, obesity, and viral hepatitis. Lancet 2014.
[ii] British Liver Trust https://britishlivertrust.org.uk/information-and-support/statistics/#:~:text=Liver%20disease%20is%20on%20the,either%20remained%20stable%20or%20decreased.
[iii] UK Parliament, Liver Diseases written answer, UIN 7264, responded on 14 October 2024
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-10-04/7264