Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to (a) raise awareness and (b) decrease the number of misdiagnoses of Lipoedema.

The National Health Service website provides information for patients and the public on a wide range of conditions, including lipoedema.

To support clinicians in identifying and treating lipoedema, in May 2014, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) worked in partnership with the charity Lipoedema UK to develop and publish an e-learning module for GPs on the diagnosis and management of lipoedema. The module was endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing and updated in 2018.

In May 2017 Wounds UK, an organisation that provides guidance, education and training in wound and skin management, published best practice guidance on diagnosing and treating lipoedema. The guidance can be found at the following link:

www.lipoedema.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WUK_Lipoedema-BPS_Web.pdf