Dr Beccy Cooper
MP for Worthing West · Labour · United Kingdom
“Its population is older than average—even though I am not older than average—frailty is increasing, multiple long-term conditions are common, emergency admissions are correspondingly higher, recruitment is harder and deprivation exists alongside affluence.”
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) for bringing this timely and important debate to the Chamber. As we have heard, corridor care is one of the clearest signs of wider pressures across urgent and emergency care services, including rising demand, delayed discharge and constrained hospital capacity.”
“We have talked about the back door, but I really want to talk about the front door. Members will be unsurprised to hear that, as a public health doctor, I know that prevention is a corridor care policy.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for those excellent remarks, and I agree wholeheartedly. As I have said, corridor care is a symptom, and our challenge is to identify the underlying causes, rather than simply measure the symptoms.”
“Every prevented stroke, every smoking cessation intervention, every warm home, every child who grows up healthier and every patient supported earlier in the community means one less avoidable admission to an already overcrowded emergency department, such as that of my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting.”
“I agree 100%. My hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) has already talked about his role in the water, sanitation and hygiene all-party parliamentary group. Access to water is an absolutely essential health determinant.”
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“What’s that?” So hopefully this debate will highlight this alarming disease. Closely linked to our ongoing struggles with obesity, fatty liver disease—for the record, its clinical name is metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease; that is the last time I am going to say that today—is deeply rooted in our broken food systems and the stark health inequalities that our communities face.”
“In stark contrast with other killer diseases where the mortality rate has gone down, deaths from liver disease have increased by 400%—yes, 400%—over the past two decades. Every year we are seeing 18,000 deaths from liver disease. It is now the biggest killer of 35 to 49-year-olds in the UK. In two to three years it is set to surpass heart disease as the leading cause of premature death in the UK. Today’s debate matters because fatty liver disease is becoming one of the defining public health challenges of our generation—a disease that already affects as many as one in five adults in the UK, equating to about 1 million people, but one that hardly anyone knows about. When I asked my parliamentary colleagues to speak in today’s debate, they said, “Fatty liver disease?”
“Today I want to make the case for linking our concerns about being overweight and sedentary with the very real risk of developing fatty liver disease. Before I give the alarming statistics about the huge increase in liver disease in the UK, I want us all to hold on to the fact that a weight loss of 10% can halt and even reverse fatty liver disease progression, and the way to help us all to do that is not to point fingers and tell individuals to try harder. There are much more effective public health solutions than that. Now for the alarming statistics that should give us all pause for thought: after heart disease, liver disease is the biggest cause of premature mortality and lost working years of life in the UK.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered obesity and fatty liver disease. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford, alongside my parliamentary colleagues who have kindly come along this morning to debate and highlight the public health emergency that is obesity and fatty liver disease. The vast majority of us do not often think about the health of our livers. If we do, our biggest concern is how many units of alcohol we drink every week and whether our livers can keep up. But we do talk about our weight a fair amount, either in terms of how we look and how our clothes fit, or, if we are linking it to disease, whether we are blocking up our arteries and risking a heart attack.”
“Fatty liver disease is a silent killer, often asymptomatic until at a very advanced stage, meaning many patients are diagnosed too late for effective intervention. Left untreated, as too many are, fatty liver disease can progress to liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer. Fatty liver disease also increases significantly the risk of heart attacks, stroke and heart failure. It is projected to overtake alcohol as the leading cause of liver transplants within a decade. How do we treat fatty liver disease? Despite high and rising mortality rates, there are limited treatment options for patients with this disease. As I have said, weight loss and lifestyle change are essential.”
“I thank the hon. Member for making that excellent point. He is absolutely right. The issues of the NHS waiting lists are pertinent and stark. Reducing them will mean that we have to get the left shift right as well as invest in acute services. Our policies have failed the population for decades. This debate is an opportunity to make the urgent case for a national liver strategy, joined-up public health work and profound reform of the conditions that stop us all living well. Because we have failed to build an environment where healthy food is affordable and accessible, two thirds of UK adults are now overweight or obese, and one in three children in England are above a healthy weight when they leave primary school.”
“We urgently need to increase public understanding and encourage early liver checks, particularly for those at higher risk because of obesity or type 2 diabetes. What is more, we have seen primary care systemic failures to improve early detection, such that three quarters of people are diagnosed with cirrhosis at hospital in an emergency, when it is too late for effective treatment or intervention.”
“We have fallen behind the United States and Europe, as our market is too small for prioritisation. If I might get a bit more political, that is driven in part by our decision to leave the European single market. But this is a rapidly advancing field and we are approaching a potential breakthrough in treatment. With adequate planning, co-ordinated action, investment and leadership, we can ensure that our national health system is patient-ready to deliver the next generation of medications, and that all patients, regardless of postcode, can benefit. Early diagnosis offers significantly better outcomes and a wider range of treatment options, but despite fatty liver disease being medically recognised in the 1980s, clinical and public awareness of it remains far too low.”
“I thank the hon. Member for his excellent intervention. I absolutely agree that the national cancer strategy is essential. We must make sure that liver cancer is integrated into it, and that diagnosis and treatment are a key part of it and are funded across the country, to make sure that the inequalities that I am going to talk about are addressed sufficiently. Before we get to the issue of diagnosis and treatment, weight loss and lifestyle change are essential. We know that a Mediterranean diet plus exercise improves liver function and that reducing ultra-processed foods reduces intrahepatic fat. However, for those whose disease has progressed to scarring of the liver, or liver fibrosis, there is an urgent need for therapies that directly target the liver. Currently, no drugs are licensed to treat fatty liver disease in the UK.”
“The system uses existing NHS data to identify people at risk of liver disease before symptoms develop, allowing GPs proactively to invite patients for screening and support. I am delighted to say it is now being implemented across NHS South West. It is proof that, with genuine support from senior NHS management, clinical and digital teams at all levels can come together for the good of patients. That system is exactly the kind of innovation we need in order to make early diagnosis and prevention the norm and not the exception. I now come to prevention. Screening and early diagnosis are vital but, as for all population health issues, as my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) rightly highlighted, we must have a laser focus on preventing the root causes of fatty liver disease.”
“The British Liver Trust, whose representatives are here today, is rightly calling for an end to this postcode lottery, so a key ask raised in this debate is that every integrated care board, every regional and national health area that we have, should have a full pathway for early detection of liver disease. There is some excellent, innovative work out there that can help us to get to a much better place in tackling this disease. I recently met the team at Predictive Health Intelligence—whose representatives I think are also here today—who have developed hepatoSIGHT, which is a great name; well done. That is an inspiring example of how technology can transform early detection.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent intervention. She is absolutely right. With her public health expertise, she highlights the very real problems that lead to fatty liver disease: our broken food system, the issue with access to good, nutritious food for children in school, and the need to ensure that our stark health inequalities are addressed. I will come to that later in my speech. To go back to the issue of diagnosis and treatment, we should note that a staggering 80% of England currently has no effective detection and treatment pathway—yes, a staggering 80%.”
“None of this is easy or it would have been done already, but right now our environment is draining our health service of billions each year and weighing heavily on the nation’s health—no pun intended. Let us not keep repeating our mistakes, but rather embed food policy as a national health priority. Through our work on preventing obesity and fatty liver disease, let us support and finally see the long-discussed and essential shift towards prevention and a healthier, wealthier country.”
“Thirdly, if we truly mean to deliver the left shift to prevention, promised in the 10-year health plan for England, then we have to change the environment that is driving poor health. There is strong consensus about the necessity of upstream interventions to regulate the unhealthy food and drink environment. We can build on that strong consensus to extend the levy model to high-sugar and high-salt foods; to enforce the 9 pm watershed for high fat, salt and sugar advertising, closing brand mark loopholes; to provide stable funding for local food partnerships, so that councils can act on local needs; to reinstate the full childhood obesity plan; and to address food affordability via fiscal reform.”
“Many lacked delivery plans, timelines or evaluation frameworks, leading to fragmented progress and limited long-term impact. What can we do now to ensure that this public health emergency is addressed? My key asks for our Health Minister, who is kindly listening here today, are as follows. First, there is a clear need for a national liver strategy, ensuring increased public awareness, early liver checks and primary care pathways. As stated earlier, every integrated care board should have a pathway for the early detection of liver disease. Secondly, we need strong planning and co-ordination to be ready to deliver the next generation of medication for liver disease.”
“Economic analysis last year suggests that excess weight costs the economy £126 billion a year. A Budget is coming up next month; I am fairly sure that our Chancellor would like £126 billion a year. That figure takes in wider factors, such as lost productivity, care costs and lost years of healthy life. The direct NHS cost of obesity is projected to rise from £6.5 billion to £9.7 billion by 2050. We cannot separate our health and our wealth, and we cannot hope to achieve economic growth without tackling issues such as obesity and fatty liver disease. Since 1990, there have been nearly 700 policies proposed by Government to reduce obesity. Imagine having 700 policies about your life! Past strategies fell short because they targeted behaviour change—individual choice—rather than the structural and commercial drivers of diet.”
“As I said at the beginning, this is not about personal failure. As hon. Members have said, sometimes people feel that that they are failing to lose weight and failing to keep themselves healthy. This is not about personal failure; it is a political failure. It is our collective failure to create a food environment that protects rather than undermines public health. If we are serious about prevention, we must be serious about reform—the right type—with stronger fiscal and regulatory measures to reduce the availability and marketing of foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar, and to rebuild a food system that serves public health and not profit. Why have we not addressed this yet? Weighted against the commercial gain of the food and drink industry, our obesogenic environment is killing our population and costing the taxpayer billions.”
“That demonstrates the urgent need to act now to prevent an even greater epidemic of disease in future. That has not happened by accident; it is the result of a broken food system, which has made the UK Europe’s third most obese country and one of the world’s biggest consumers of ultra-processed food. We have a system that makes the unhealthy choice the cheapest, easiest and most available choice. Healthier food now costs more than twice as much per calorie as unhealthy food. That is £10.24 per 1,000 kilocalories compared with £4.50. For fruit and vegetables, the cost is even more at £11.90 per 1,000 kilocalories. For the lowest income households, following a recommended healthy diet would swallow half or more of their disposable income. It is no surprise that obesity and fatty liver disease hit hardest in poorer communities.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent point and agree absolutely. In our society, we focus on how people look for many reasons, cultural and commercial, but this is purely about health. This is about keeping people healthy on the inside and allowing them to live good quality lives. My hon. Friend is absolutely right in that sense. Poor diet is now the leading risk factor for death and disability. It is responsible for millions of preventable deaths each year. In the UK, almost two thirds of adults are overweight or are living with obesity, increasing the risk of fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease and a multitude of cancers. In my job as a public health consultant, I see a lot of data and read many papers, but this statistic shocked me: four in 10 children with obesity may already have fatty liver disease.”
“To those who accuse me and other public health consultants of being part of a nanny state, I say, frankly, the nanny we have in this state right now is not a great nanny. It is one that allows us to eat things that make us ill, that encourages us to not exercise, that makes our children sick and that means we die earlier than we need to. I do not want to live in a nanny state, but I do want to live in a healthy environment that allows our children to live well and allows all of us to live the lives that we want to lead—one that makes the healthy choice the easy choice, the affordable choice and the normal choice, and one where, if we want to do things that make us ill, we really have to try hard. I thank everybody for their time today. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered obesity and fatty liver disease.”
“Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman) told me to say that slowly; it basically means it is hard for us to do healthy things and keep well—encourages us, consciously and subconsciously, to do things that are not great for our bodies. The Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson), said that we have agency. Of course we do, but we are humans in an environment that is telling us all sorts of things all the time. Our job as parliamentarians, as representatives of our residents, as members of the party that is governing the country, is to make sure that the messages and signals that we send, and the legislation that we pass, encourage a healthy environment for our residents to live in. Within that healthy environment, people can make their own choices.”
“Thank you, Mr Efford, for chairing the debate this morning. I thank the Minister for her excellent remarks, and all the parliamentary colleagues who have taken the time to be here. I thank the British Liver Trust and everybody who came to hear the debate. I hope they found it edifying and useful. I have no particular further remarks; I think most points have been covered. There is a lot of work to do. As has been said, 90% of liver disease is preventable. That is a serious amount of disease that we do not need to face in this country, which is incredibly important to remember. Our obesogenic environment—my hon.”
“Rehabilitation is a vital part of prison health programmes, but when prisoners develop infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, they can be isolated from organised programmes such as rehab. Given the risk that interrupted TB treatment can fuel antimicrobial resistance, what steps is the Department taking to ensure that prisoners receive both uninterrupted medical care and continued access to rehabilitation?”
“The chief medical officer’s 2021 report was clear: coastal areas suffer a persistent “coastal excess” of ill health even after accounting for age and deprivation. Rural areas also face hidden deprivation that regional averages fail to capture: limited services, high fuel poverty, isolation and inadequate access to care. These are lives cut short and opportunities denied. The Bill will compel leaders in Sussex to consider health in every policy—transport, housing and skills—embedding public health in all decisions, and that is something that we can learn from at a national level too.”
“In my constituency, almost one in four residents are now aged 65 or above, yet much of our housing stock is not fit for older age. The shortage of suitable homes limits our ability to attract working-age people to the area. Along with so many other areas, we face a dire lack of rented and affordable social housing. Only at a regional level can we plan housing that meets our needs now and into the future: homes that are accessible for our older population, affordable for young families, and supported by infrastructure to create thriving, mixed communities, networked and easily accessible across Sussex. Finally, I will focus on the new duty on health inequalities. I welcome the Bill’s introduction of this duty, which is crucial for the rural and coastal communities in my constituency and across Sussex.”
“Businesses in Worthing West and across Sussex are currently gridlocked by failing east-to-west travel routes and by public transport that is too often unaffordable, unreliable or absent outside of our town centres. A regional transport authority with legal responsibility for buses, trains and active travel will be able to leverage investment and design services that actually meet the needs of our communities. We want travel planning that connects people and businesses, enables eco-tourism to flourish in our beautiful South Downs and lets residents move across Sussex without relying on a crumbling 20th-century system that is built around cars and that no longer serves us. On housing and infrastructure, with this Bill we can align housing, planning and infrastructure finally to deliver the right homes in the right places across the region.”
“This devolution debate today is a continuation of the conversation that has been doing the rounds in Sussex since the announcement that we will be in the first wave of new regions to begin the devolution process. The Bill will allow us to unlock resources at a regional level and to use them to best serve the needs of our communities. It provides the framework for cohesive, strategic planning across Sussex for the housing and services that we need, generating good employment and the freedom to travel easily. Done right, it is an opportunity for greater democratic engagement and participation. Let me turn to a couple of the issues that have been doing the rounds in this conversation in Sussex. The first is planning and transport.”
“In the meantime, it has taken the excellent, innovative step of providing support outreach to mainstream schools from within its capacity. The SEND system is not working, and neither is the two-tier system of local authorities. It is time for a new model of regional school boards, with increased accountability, shared goals and, most importantly, multi-year funding settlements to address issues of demand and supply of SEND services—”
“Worthing High, for example, has been unable to move forward with planned expansions of its specialist support centre due to local authority delays and budget reductions. The school finds itself battling the local authority and unable to meet the demand for special social communication support without additional space, which it has actually identified. Northbrook college has had to find funding for increased levels of physical and medical need, with EHCP provisions that it is not equipped to provide, despite its best efforts. Oak Grove college is an excellent example of a local special needs provider, but it, too, is waiting on a decision to expand—again, into land that it has identified—and on funding that has been promised.”
“In West Sussex, we have seen years of county council delays and mismanagement, and a complete breakdown in support for SEND children, their families and schools. Like all the other hon. Members here, I have had the privilege of visiting schools and colleges across my constituency. Without exception, they have outstanding teachers and leaders crying out for more SEND support, whether it be the need for specialist staff and training, or for physical space and facilities. Many of them have been waiting for years for decisions from West Sussex county council to build these facilities, let alone actually seeing any funding to directly address the issues that out-of-county settings have with transport costs, which continue to spiral beyond control.”
“The profound neglect of specialist services, such as speech and language services, that support early health needs to be addressed, and health also needs to be far better integrated into the EHCP system. For our schools and families in Worthing West, Sussex devolution is an opportunity to create a system that actually works, where education, health and social care colleagues work together on the issues and outcomes that families and schools so desperately need solving. Yes, we need to address the demand for SEND provision through proper investment in services, preventive healthcare and investment in schools, and yes, we need early intervention and proper access to specialist services, but we also need a functioning system where education and early years have a strategic voice outside siloed local education authorities.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) for securing this debate. The crisis in SEND provision is inextricable from the crisis in health and social care, and it is a shameful legacy of the neglect of the austerity years, but funding is not the only issue. What we see with SEND in West Sussex happens because education, health and care are not integrated. SEND provision suffers because there has been little to no working relationship between the local education authority and the integrated care system. As a doctor, it pains me to ask this, but where is the health in education, health and care plans? There is little parity of responsibility for outcomes, and no joined-up work towards shared goals.”
“I thank colleagues across the House for bringing thought and sensitivity to the debates here and in Committee. I often think that this place does not show the best of us, but in proceedings on this Bill, I have heard considered debate; people have listened to each other set out both sides of the argument. As a new MP, I reflect on how this place legislates, and how it could evolve and improve, and I think that this Bill brings learnings. Assisted dying was never going to be an issue without controversy, and there has been much to consider. I will take a few minutes to outline why, as a medical doctor specialising in public health, I am supportive of the Bill. I will include brief reflections on safeguarding and the provision of end-of-life care that have been raised by my constituents.”
“They have also reinforced the fact that excellent end-of-life care should be a standard offering in our healthcare system, and that this is not currently the case. As with public health, end-of-life care is often seen as a “nice to have”, rather than the essential part of our health system that it actually is.”
“Safeguarding measures have been specified, including clinician awareness, support and training; referral mechanisms for any concerns; multidisciplinary board oversight; a specific disability advisory board; independent advocates; and multiple discussions to assure all parties that the person has come to the decision of their own volition. Turning to the second area—the needs of this population—end-of-life care is a profound professional commitment for the people who provide it. My heartfelt thanks go to the healthcare teams in my constituency who have reached out during this process to tell me extraordinary stories of compassion, joy and hope brought to people in their final days.”
“Constituents and fellow parliamentarians have voiced unease at the thought of coercion in this space—that is, if a person meets the criteria for the Bill but does not wish to access assisted dying, will they be coerced into doing so by a person or persons with malign intent? In public health, we often refer to this balance as the precautionary principle; we are supportive of people having a choice, but we need to be satisfied that the risk of harm is minimised. In the context of assisted dying, this translates into taking extra precaution to ensure that legislation does not lead to unintended consequences and abuse, and there has been much debate on this. The concerns that have been raised are reasonable and valid, but I think they have been met with reasonable responses in the Bill.”
“That is to say, it is people coming to the end of their life with a terminal illness. In public health, at this point in our consideration we are often met with—we have already heard about this—the slippery slope argument: “If you legislate for this group of people, it won’t stop there.” However, the criteria for someone to be considered for assisted dying are clear in the Bill. I have heard from constituents who think that the criteria are potentially too narrow, but that is not what is in front of us today, and any change by future Parliaments will have to go through another legislative process. Looking at the needs of the population for whom the Bill is relevant, numerous concerns have been raised in this area, both from a safeguarding perspective and in the provision of end-of-life care.”
“I agree with my hon. Friend, and I will come to that point later. In public health, we focus primarily on prevention care for the population. In other words, we take decisions, using the best available evidence, that have the potential to impact the health of thousands, if not millions, of people. There is almost always a trade-off in these decisions. Quite often, one sees the label of “nanny state” thrown our way. That is because we deal with choice and freedoms on a population level. When considering this Bill, I asked myself: which population is this legislation for? What are the needs of this population? What freedoms and choices are we being asked to legislate for? As for the people for whom the Bill will be relevant, it is a narrowly defined population who I can clearly see have specific needs.”
“Much of public health is determined by legislation, and the underpinning premise is that we are creating a safe environment for a population, within which individuals can make their informed choice. I think that this Bill creates those conditions, and therefore as a public health physician, I am satisfied that I can vote for it. Ultimately, a good death is something that we all want for ourselves, and for those we love and care for. My vote for this Bill is based on the arguments I have laid out today, but my broader vote and voice will always be for compassion, understanding, and continuing constructive dialogue to ensure we do our best to improve the lives of the people we serve until their dying day.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, but this Bill is not about negating end-of-life care. If anything, it is shining a spotlight on it and saying that care, dignity and choice at the end of our lives should be afforded to us all. That brings me to my final thoughts on legislating for choice—our freedom from and freedom to. Currently, if a person would like to choose assisted dying, that choice is only open to them if they have sufficient financial resources. This is an equity issue: if a person is financially poor, terminally ill and nearing the end of their life, they do not have the freedom to choose assisted dying. That does not mean, of course, that they would, but this legislation will allow an equitable choice for this defined group of people.”
“It provides integrated dementia care, diagnosis, support and a rich programme of activities that keep people healthy and living at home. That is an aspiration that we want for all of us—to live well and to stay at home for as long as possible. Our role in Government is to ensure a more co-ordinated system, building on best practice models, such as those that we have heard about today, including that of Guild Care in Worthing West. We have also touched on training. Guild Care delivers in-house specialist dementia training to its staff in a bespoke programme that it developed with colleagues in the Bromley dementia hub—so I give a shout-out for Bromley there. Good research-based staff training is essential to help care professionals to deliver compassionate, person-centred support, as so many hon. Members have said today.”
“People visiting dementia day services experience stronger social ties, have better mental health, require fewer GP visits, use less medication, sleep better—something that we all need to do—and have more active engaged minds. We also know that respite is vital because behind each diagnosis, as we have heard today, often stands an unpaid carer whose career and life are put on hold while their own health quietly deteriorates, as stress, sleep loss and isolation take their toll. Inevitably, in that situation, we see dementia rates rising. Recognising and investing in the value of respite has huge benefits. We have also heard about some innovative community care hubs across the country. Guild Care in Worthing West is developing its own community hub to combat social isolation.”
“I want to talk a little bit about what we are doing in Worthing West, which relates to a lot of what has been said already, and then I shall conclude with the national picture. In Worthing West we have 2,361 people currently living with the condition. The charity Guild Care is a not-for-profit care service for older people, people with dementia, and children and adults with learning difficulties. It provides care for 120 people with dementia in their own homes and for a further 100 in its respite service. It is great that we have heard so much about respite services in this debate today. It is so important to help people with dementia access support, care and activities that provide a healthy way of living.”
“As healthcare professionals and as politicians, we should encourage people of all ages and stages of life, and in particular middle-aged adults, to be more physically active, eat healthily and maintain a healthy weight, drink less alcohol, stop smoking—very apt at the moment—and be socially active. Many Members have spoken today about being socially active, and socially isolated older adults are nearly twice as likely to develop dementia within 15 years. Further recommendations include controlling diabetes and high blood pressure. If that sounds familiar, it is because we talk about that in the cardiovascular realm, too. We should be communicating loudly that what is good for the heart is good for reducing the risk of dementia. Let me move on to dementia care.”
“I thank the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for bringing this important debate to the House this afternoon. I also thank other Members for sharing such personal testimonies; as well as bringing broader context, it really adds value to what this House brings to our national conversation. As a public health consultant, it would be remiss of me not to spend a couple of minutes talking about how to reduce the risk of dementia before getting on to dementia care, as only about a third of UK adults think it is actually possible to reduce their risk of dementia. I am sure these recommendations will all be familiar to everybody listening.”
“I am advocating for policies that help people live well and protect them from illnesses including dementia, and for services that help people to live well with dementia, by emphasising their strengths, which many personal testimonies have already touched on. We must also be supporting people and their families to better navigate the condition and contribute to their communities and our society.”
“Sometimes we think about dementia as an illness that has no hope. One Member has already said that 50% of us may well develop dementia in our lifetimes. One way or another, the illness has touched pretty much everyone in this Chamber. Care Talk recently published a comprehensive report on dementia, which is well worth reading. I would like to urge everyone to take up this new narrative on dementia. The traditional narrative surrounding dementia focuses on decline and inevitability, but, as I have already mentioned, around 40% of dementia cases might be attributable to risk factors that can be modified. A 20% reduction in the risk factors per decade could reduce UK prevalence by 16%—even by this year.”
“The Darzi report and our recent work in the Health and Social Care Committee, some members of whom are here this afternoon, underline what we all know, which is that we cannot fix the NHS without fixing the broken social care system. The two are fundamentally interconnected; we must not look at health and social care issues in isolation, and that includes dementia. We must ensure that strategic plans build better integration and recognise that investment in social care is essential. It is essential to improve people’s lives. Moving from treatment to prevention of illness is pivotal to the NHS 10-year strategy and to reducing the spiralling costs to the NHS of an ageing population. Let me conclude now with this idea of changing the narrative. This has been touched on this afternoon.”
“What an outstanding service that sounds. I know there is a creative mental health all-party parliamentary group taking place today. We underestimate the benefits of exposure to the creative arts for all of us, specifically for those with dementia. My hon. Friend is absolutely right and I thank him for raising that. Clearly, training is essential, as are the creative arts. To conclude, I wish to talk about what this all means nationally, and specifically about the implementation of a national social care service, which I know the Minister is very well aware of. I acknowledge that the Casey Commission is a vital step towards implementing that service.”
“T4. This week we celebrate the International Day of Midwives. Midwives are an essential part of ending inequity in maternal health, delivering lifesaving community-based care. Will the Minister please commit to working with the Minister for Health to ensure that our 10-year health strategy and the NHS workforce plan put adequate resources into the overstretched maternity units in many, often deprived, parts of our country?”