Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on the NHS Choices Winter Health Advice campaign; and for what purpose that expenditure has been incurred.

The total budget for NHS England’s national ‘Feeling under the weather’ (NHS Choices Winter Health Advice) campaign, for financial year 2014-15, is £6 million. The budget delivered two waves of national campaign activity. The first wave ran from 27 October 2014 to 8 January 2015 and the second wave from 17 January to 1 March 2015.

The ‘Feeling under the weather’ campaign has been created to help reduce the number of elderly and frail people requiring emergency admissions through urgent and emergency care services, particularly accident and emergency departments. The campaign aims to achieve this by raising awareness about what medical help is available and should be sought, depending on the severity of the ailment.