Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of Community Diagnostic Centres have diagnostic capacity to provide (a) Intelligent Liver Function Tests, (b) FibroScans and (c) FIB-4 tests to assess fibrosis of the liver.

Intelligent Liver Function Tests are carried out in laboratories and therefore cannot be done at a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC). These tests determine whether a fibroscan is required. There are 10 CDCs currently providing ultrasound liver elastography (fibroscan). NHS England has plans to understand the diagnostic pathways for liver disease and how CDCs can further support this. The pathway for assessing liver disease should start with blood tests taken in primary care, with FIB-4 liver tests available at NHS trusts. NHS England has not made an assessment of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on the use of FibroScan for assessing liver fibrosis and cirrhosis outside secondary and specialist care.