WHILST announcing the £6 billion which is being allocated to the Greater Manchester area towards NHS and Social Care in April 2016, a spokesman dropped in the news that half of all patients with diabetes and other chronic illnesses are not even aware of their condition.

This can only be due to the fact that patients are not being informed of this by their doctors and other clinicians. Apart from the ethics involved in withholding such information from patients, it distinctly contravenes the principles laid down in the Health and Social Care Act 2012, stressing the importance of patients being involved in their own care and treatment.

Surely patients must be told if they have a chronic illness in order that they may make adjustments to their diets, for example, or other interventions which could help to slow down the progress of the disease and thus save costly treatment later on.

Could somebody within the healthcare profession let us ordinary mortals know whose decision it was initially to withhold such information from patients and for what purpose?

Name and address supplied