Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) GPs and (b) other healthcare professionals receive adequate training to (a) screen for bipolar disorder, (b) manage it effectively and (c) prevent the inappropriate prescription of antidepressants.

The standard of training for general practitioners and other health care professionals is the responsibility of the independent statutory regulatory bodies, which set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses, and higher education institutions, which write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators’ outcome standards.

Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all nevertheless emphasize the skills and approaches a Health Care Practitioner must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and appropriate treatment plans for their patients, including those with bipolar disorder.

Once qualified, health care professionals are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up to date, and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This should include taking account of new research and guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they can continue to provide high-quality care to all patients.