Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to raise awareness amongst GPs of Giant Cell Arteritis to allow early diagnosis and treatment.

Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) is one of over 6,000 rare diseases. There are no bespoke measures in place to raise awareness of GCA amongst general practitioners (GPs), however, steps to increase awareness of rare conditions such as Giant Cell Arteritis, and improve outcomes for those living with rare diseases are being taken through the implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rare-diseases-strategy

Measures include, for example, the UK Rare Diseases Forum via its digital platform and an annual conference. The recent ‘national conversation on rare diseases’ survey, sought views from the rare diseases community to understand the major challenges faced by those living and working with rare diseases. Results of the survey will be fed into the development of a new post-2020 Framework to build on the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases.