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 effect of heart disease screening programmes for the elderly on (a) the incidence of preventable disease and (b) NHS costs.

The Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) prevention initiatives report summarises a wide range of actions led by Public Health England (PHE) which will reduce preventable deaths from CVD. This can be viewed at the following link:

www.healthcheck.nhs.uk/commissioners-and-providers/national-guidance/

In February 2018 PHE published national ambitions on the secondary prevention of Atrial Fibrillation, High Blood Pressure and High Cholesterol. This can be viewed at the following link:

https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/14/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease/

People aged 40-74 without existing disease are eligible once every five years for an NHS Health Check, England’s CVD prevention programme. Modelling shows that the programme, is cost effective with potential savings to the National Health Service of around £57 million per year after four years, rising to £176 million per year after 15 years. This equates to a cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year of around £3,000, considerably lower than the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s threshold. The cost benefits of the programme primarily arise from the opportunity it presents to prevent 1,600 heart attacks and strokes and save at least 650 lives each year. A copy of the Economic Modelling for Vascular Checks is attached.

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee has not undertaken an assessment of the impact of routine screening for the elderly to prevent deaths due to heart disease. Therefore, the Committee has not made a recommendation on this issue.