Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department taking to help improve the diagnosis of overlapping illnesses such as PoTs and EDS.

We recognise the growing prevalence and complexity of overlapping and co-existing chronic illnesses and long-term conditions, and the importance of improving diagnosis, management, and support for these patients.

Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we are expanding community diagnostic services, introducing Neighbourhood Health Centres, and deploying multidisciplinary teams to provide holistic support. Patients will benefit from enhanced NHS App functionality, including My Medicines and My Health, and will be able to self-refer to specialist services where appropriate.

Additionally, the 10-Year Health Plan’s commitments on artificial intelligence will give clinicians advanced tools for faster diagnosis, predictive analytics, and personalised care planning. For people with long-term conditions, this means earlier interventions, better monitoring of complex needs, and more time for clinicians to focus on patient-centred care rather than administrative tasks. The plan also commits to 95% of people with complex needs having a personalised care plan by 2027.

The appointment by NHS England of a National Specialty Adviser on multi-morbidity provides expert leadership to improve care for people with multiple long-term conditions, ensuring services are better coordinated, evidence-based, and focused on holistic patient needs.

We also recognise that doctors can find it challenging to diagnose Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) because these conditions share symptoms with many other disorders.

Resources such as the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Syncope Toolkit for PoTS and the EDS Toolkit, now maintained by Ehlers-Danlos Support UK, are improving clinician awareness of both conditions. The National Institute for Care Excellence provides a clinical knowledge summary on blackouts and syncope to support consistent assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. NHS England commissions a National Diagnostic Service for rare EDS subtypes.