Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with heart valve disease symptoms are able to access (a) diagnostic assessments and (b) treatment during the covid-19 outbreak.

Primary and secondary care have remained open throughout the pandemic and patients have been encouraged to access these services.

Since 29 April NHS England has prioritised the reintroduction of non COVID-19 services with the aim of recovering as much performance as possible before winter. To aid this, new COVID-19 secure hubs for surgery and diagnostics have been established.

Further planning is underway to ensure critical services, such as cardiac surgery, are maintained during any future waves.