FOI Ref: 0130FOI2021

14th December 2020

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information

We are pleased to respond to your request for information and our response is set out below:

Request

Please advise when the guidance from the CCG referred to below:

1) commenced.

2) was last reviewed.

3) will next be reviewed.

Please send documentation and review documentation about this guidance.

Response

The CCG self care guidance page 5 and our local guidance page 15 were updated and approved in January 2020 in response to national guidance produced by NHS England.  

Referring to the national guidance pages 16/17: ‘There is insufficient high quality evidence to demonstrate the clinical effectiveness of vitamins and minerals’. However, please note there are exceptions which are listed in page 17 of this guidance. Within the guidance it states: ‘NB maintenance or preventative treatment is not an exception’. As a result, patients are asked to purchase a supplement over the counter for maintenance or preventative treatment.

We are constantly reviewing nationally produced guidance and act upon it whenever it is made available. The last interim update was carried out in January 2020 and our Vitamin D guidance will be reviewed in August 2023 unless there are any major changes in the meantime.

In regards to COVID-19, the government have recently announced they are providing free supplies of Vitamin D to certain cohorts of patients. Please note patients will be directly contacted if they are considered to be an extremely clinically vulnerable person and will be able to apply for the vitamins.