Asked by: Baroness McDonagh (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what priority they are giving to managing cardiovascular diseases after the COVID-19 pandemic; what steps they intend to take (1) to better manage this disease, and (2) to work with international partners to reduce its incidence to meet (a) the WHO goal in 2025, and (b) the UN Sustainable Development Goal in 2030.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England and NHS Improvement promoted restoration of cardiovascular disease (CVD) services as a priority, including diagnostic and treatment services for patients with heart failure and heart valve disease, as the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began to decline.
The United Kingdom Global Better Health Programme contributes to managing the impact of non-communicable diseases, including CVD, in its partner countries through technical collaboration which contributes to the World Health Organization and UN Sustainable Development Goals. The management of CVD has not been recently raised by the UK with G7 countries. The Department has recently commented on a working paper on CVD presented by the Italian Presidency of the G20 major economies. There are currently no plans to share Public Health England’s best practice.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in Northern Ireland have been diagnosed with heart valve disease in the last three years; and if he will have discussions with the British Heart Foundation to raise awareness of the risks and prevention of that disease.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not hold the data for Northern Ireland as this is a devolved matter.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working in partnership with the British Heart Foundation to raise awareness of heart valve disease, ensuring that the disease is diagnosed early, enabling patients to get the treatment they need.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that primary care networks improve heart failure prevention.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Heart failure is a key priority in the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan sets out a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for those individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation.NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £4.5 million in 2012/22 to support whole pathway improvements in cardiac networks and to reduce variation in care across the service.
To reduce readmissions, the National Health Service is supporting patients to better understand their condition, so that they can be supported to self-manage at home. The NHS Long Term Plan will provide for greater awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and to ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment. Greater access to echocardiography in primary care will improve the investigation of those with breathlessness - a key heart failure symptom.
Those people with heart failure and heart valve disease will be better supported by multi-disciplinary teams as part of Primary Care Networks (PCN). Development of a PCN Directed Enhanced Service for CVD prevention and diagnosis is ongoing and will be implemented in 2021/22.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase (a) access to and (b) uptake of cardiac rehabilitation for heart failure patients.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Heart failure is a key priority in the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan sets out a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for those individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation.NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £4.5 million in 2012/22 to support whole pathway improvements in cardiac networks and to reduce variation in care across the service.
To reduce readmissions, the National Health Service is supporting patients to better understand their condition, so that they can be supported to self-manage at home. The NHS Long Term Plan will provide for greater awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and to ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment. Greater access to echocardiography in primary care will improve the investigation of those with breathlessness - a key heart failure symptom.
Those people with heart failure and heart valve disease will be better supported by multi-disciplinary teams as part of Primary Care Networks (PCN). Development of a PCN Directed Enhanced Service for CVD prevention and diagnosis is ongoing and will be implemented in 2021/22.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the (a) variation between hospitals in the provision of specialist care for heart failure patients and (b) rate at which people with heart failure are readmitted to hospital after their first admission.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Heart failure is a key priority in the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan sets out a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for those individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation.NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £4.5 million in 2012/22 to support whole pathway improvements in cardiac networks and to reduce variation in care across the service.
To reduce readmissions, the National Health Service is supporting patients to better understand their condition, so that they can be supported to self-manage at home. The NHS Long Term Plan will provide for greater awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and to ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment. Greater access to echocardiography in primary care will improve the investigation of those with breathlessness - a key heart failure symptom.
Those people with heart failure and heart valve disease will be better supported by multi-disciplinary teams as part of Primary Care Networks (PCN). Development of a PCN Directed Enhanced Service for CVD prevention and diagnosis is ongoing and will be implemented in 2021/22.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will implement the recommendations put forward by NHS Providers in April 2021 on reducing the backlogs in treatment and diagnosis for (a) heart valve disease and (b) other conditions accrued as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and with reference to those backlogs, if he will make it his policy for innovative treatments to be rapidly adopted to help (a) reduce the length of hospital stays and (b) increase treatment capacity.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
While we have no plans to implement the specific recommendations made by NHS Providers, we are working to the same aims as we focus on restoring services. These ambitions, to increase capacity, invest in diagnostics, achieve efficiency and productivity gains, improve pathways, and use technology to improve patient care, are reflected in the National Health Service priorities and operational planning guidance for this year.
We are supporting a series of innovation initiatives to help reduce waiting list backlogs, including a pathway improvement programme, community diagnostic hubs and an elective accelerator programme. These innovations will help speed up diagnosis, increase capacity and reduce the length of hospital stays, with the latest data suggesting that 86.9% of procedures are carried out without an overnight stay. We hope to see further innovation delivered rapidly across NHS services to increase treatment capacity and improve patient experience, for those with heart valve disease and other conditions.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on detection rates of (a) cardiovascular disease and (b) heart valve disease.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Detection rates are captured by general practitioner practices as part of the Quality and Outcomes Framework. This data is published yearly. Data is not yet available beyond 31 March 2020, which would show the impact of COVID-19 on detection rates.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 the early detection of heart valve disease within primary care and the wider community during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Primary care and general practitioner practices have remained open throughout the pandemic and the National Health Service has prioritised treatment of the most urgent cases, including heart diseases. To continue to provide consultations in a COVID-19-safe environment, many practices are providing video or phone consultations. The NHS is prioritising restoration of the most urgently needed services, including diagnosis and treatment for patients with heart failure and heart valve disease.
In line with the diagnostics review ‘Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal’, published on the 1 October, community diagnostic hubs are being established which will support with diagnostics, to improve the capacity to increase the detection of conditions such as cardiovascular disease and heart valve disease.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 mitigate the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the (a) diagnosis and treatment of and (b) support available for patients with heart valve disease.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Primary and secondary care have remained open throughout the pandemic and patients have been encouraged to access these services.
Since 29 April NHS England has prioritised the reintroduction of non COVID-19 services with the aim of recovering as much performance as possible before winter. To aid this, new COVID-19 secure hubs for surgery and diagnostics have been established.
Further planning is underway to ensure critical services, such as cardiac surgery, are maintained during any future waves.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the care and treatment of patients with heart valve disease; and what plans he has in place to mitigate that effect.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Patients with heart valve disease have been prioritised throughout the pandemic and continue to be through the recovery period. Services in both primary and secondary care have been open throughout and patients have been encouraged to use these services.
With the learning from the initial wave of the pandemic we are planning for any future waves, meaning we can protect the most vital services.