Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) adults and (b) children in each region and constituent part of the UK suffer from congenital heart disease.

The Department has made no assessment of the efficacy and potential cost-savings to the National Health Service of self-monitoring machines for blood testing for sufferers of congenital heart disease.

Under its diagnostics assessment programme, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is developing guidance on two diagnostic technologies for patients on anticoagulation treatments to self-monitor their coagulation status. We understand that NICE expects to issue guidance in August 2014.

Information is not collected centrally on the number of adults and children in the United Kingdom who suffer from congenital heart disease.