Dermatitis
(asked on 18th January 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of management of adult atopic dermatitis across the UK.
The Department has not made an estimate of the number of adults with atopic dermatitis in Strangford or in England. Health is a devolved subject; therefore it would be for the devolved administrations to comment on atopic dermatitis in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimates that atopic eczema (atopic dermatitis) is common skin condition that affects between 15–20% of school-age children and 2–10% of adults.
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning the majority of dermatology services and are best placed to understand the needs of their local population. Most patients - adults and children - with skin problems can be well managed by primary care with support from dermatology departments in the community or local hospitals. The management and treatment of atopic eczema is well established.
To support local commissioners and clinicians to shape and manage high quality services, in 2007 NICE produced the guideline Atopic eczema in under 12s: diagnosis and management,
which sets out best practice in the diagnosis and management of the condition. Diagnosis and treatment at an early stage will of course benefit children as they reach adulthood. NICE has also developed a clinical knowledge summary for the management of atopic eczema in adults. Both the clinical knowledge summary and the guideline can be found at the following links:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/eczema-atopic
In order to understand the effectiveness of atopic eczema treatment and services, NICE recommends the use of validated patient experience tools including the Dermatology Life Quality Index. This assesses a patient’s quality of life and response to treatment.
For those patients with the most severe forms of atopic eczema, who cannot be managed through routine access to treatments provided through primary or secondary care, a referral to a specialised dermatology service may be appropriate. NHS England commissions services for people with rare and complex skin conditions and has set out what providers must have in place in order to offer specialist dermatology care, supporting equity of access for patients wherever they live. These services may provide more intensive therapies with the involvement of a range of health and care professionals, subject to a patient’s needs. More information can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/a12-spec-dermatology.pdf
There is a range of information to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of skin conditions such as atopic eczema on the NHS Choices website. In addition to this, in June 2014 Public Health England (PHE), in conjunction with the Department and NHS England, ran a Be Clear on Cancer campaign in the South West of England to raise awareness of the signs of skin cancer including information on how to reduce the risks of getting skin cancer. An interim evaluation report for the campaign was published in February 2016 and we will continue to work with PHE to assess how we take this work forward.