Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDavid Burrowes
Main Page: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)Department Debates - View all David Burrowes's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(12 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberI can assure the hon. Lady that I am not at all worried about the politics of the issue. To ensure a brief answer, I refer her to the Government’s alcohol strategy, which mentions all those factors and draws attention to the substantial progress we expect to see on those figures.
I welcome the Government’s commitment to supporting GP screening for alcohol misuse, but given that less than a third of GPs use an alcohol screening questionnaire, and of those a third use them for an average of only 33 patients a year, how can the reformed national health service incentivise those GPs to ensure that they support early intervention and minimise alcohol harm?
We will introduce an alcohol check within the NHS checks for adults from April 2013. My hon. Friend is right to highlight the substantial impact that identification and brief interventions in the GP’s surgery and elsewhere can have.