Gambling: Mental Health Services

(asked on 8th October 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the processes for supporting patients presenting to General Practitioners with mental health disorders attributable to gambling.


Answered by
Stephen Kinnock Portrait
Stephen Kinnock
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 16th October 2024

We are committed to supporting improvements to the existing treatment system, ensuring people experiencing gambling-related harm are able to access the right care at the right time.

NHS England now operates 15 specialist gambling treatment clinics, up from two in 2019, with representation across every region in England. Through these clinics, the National Health Service has capacity to treat up to 3,000 people experiencing gambling-related harms each year.

General practitioners 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 activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.

The NICE is currently developing a gambling-related harms guideline, focused on identification, assessment, and management of people who may be harmed by gambling. Publication is expected later this year.

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