Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) outcomes, (b) early identification and (c) treatment of heart attack and stroke for women.

Improving the prevention and treatment of heart attacks and stroke are key aims in the NHS Long Term Plan, with an important milestone being for the National Health Service to help prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases over the next 10 years. The NHS Long Term Plan highlights that outcomes from heart attack and stroke can be improved, and that there should be a focus on inequalities.

In addition, addressing variations in outcomes from cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as heart attacks and stroke, is one of Public Health England’s (PHE) top priorities, and in February 2019, PHE announced new 10-year CVD ambitions for England, which are intended to complement the NHS Long Term Plan and are the first ever national ambitions to improve the detection and treatment of the major causes of CVD.