Heart Diseases: Health Services

(asked on 12th June 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the recovery pathways for the care of sudden cardiac arrest survivors.


Answered by
Ashley Dalton Portrait
Ashley Dalton
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 23rd June 2025

In December 2024, to support local systems to commission high quality cardiac rehabilitation, NHS England published the document, Commissioning standards for cardiac rehabilitation, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-standards-for-cardiovascular-rehabilitation/

These standards of care complement the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document, published in 2023, to support the delivery of high-quality care and adherence to evidenced-based practice.

The NHS Long Term Plan committed to improve community first response and build defibrillator networks to help save 4,000 lives by 2028. This is being supported by educating the public, including young people of school age, about how to recognise and respond to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

NHS England is also working with partners such as the British Heart Foundation to harness new technology and ensure the public and emergency services can rapidly locate this life saving equipment in an emergency.

Patients who survive cardiac arrest and their families are supported through referral to local services within the National Health Service; this will include rehabilitation such as cardiac and neurological rehabilitation and mental health services for psychological support.

There are different pathways for cardiac arrest survivors, depending on the severity of the damage caused by the cardiac arrest. For people being discharged from secondary care and those with ischemic heart disease, namely myocardial infarction, cardiac rehabilitation services are available in every region.

Reticulating Splines