Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of testing expectant mothers for hypermobility.

To facilitate better and quicker diagnosis, patients with suspected Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) are eligible to be tested on the newly-established Genomic Medicine Service.

NHS England commissions services for patients who have EDS from specialist rheumatology centres. Some patients may also be seen in more local services, commissioned by clinical commissioning groups, including rheumatology, physiotherapy, and dermatology. NHS England also commissions a Complex EDS service through two expert centres that ensures accurate diagnosis for patients where this has been difficult. The Complex EDS service provides management plans for local care providers and communicates which allows the local health care professionals to implement the recommendations and monitor the patient’s progress.

We currently do not hold figures on the number of EDS diagnosis made in each of the last five years. However, Public Health England’s National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration Service have been working to develop a rare disease registry which will collect prospective data on EDS diagnosis in England.