Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take to help reduce premature deaths from cardiovascular disease.

The NHS Long Term Plan has committed to a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning, and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation. These ambitions will support the delivery of the aim to help prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases by 2029.

To support elective recovery, the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity, including heart disease, ensuring early access to diagnostic tests and treatment.

The NHS Health Check programme is a core component of England's CVD prevention pathway. Over 15 million people are eligible for an NHS Health Check every five years, with 1.3 million being delivered a year, preventing an estimated 500 heart attacks and strokes.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out that by 2028 the proportion of patients accessing cardiac rehabilitation will be amongst the best in Europe, with up to 85% of those eligible accessing care. This will prevent up to 23,000 premature deaths and 50,000 acute admissions over 10 years.