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 help improve (a) awareness and (b) recognition of postural tachycardia syndrome among NHS clinicians.

To improve awareness of postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) among healthcare professionals, and specifically general practitioners, the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:

https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500

It is the responsibility of local integrated care boards to work with clinicians, service users and patient groups to develop services and care pathways that are convenient and meet the needs of patients with PoTS.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published a clinical knowledge summary on the clinical management of blackouts and syncope, providing advice for clinicians in the United Kingdom on best practice in the assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. This was last updated in November 2023 and is available at the following link:

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/