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 outcomes for cardiovascular disease.

The Government is committed to reducing premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next 10 years. To accelerate progress towards this ambition, we will publish a cardiovascular disease (CVD) Modern Service Framework later this year. The framework will support consistent, high quality and equitable care whist fostering innovation across the CVD pathway.

Alongside this, work is underway to improve the impact of the NHS Health Check, which is a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, and prevents approximately 500 heart attacks and strokes a year.

To improve access and to give patients more flexibility and choice, we are developing an NHS Health Check Online service that people can use at home at a time and place convenient to them, to understand and act on their CVD risk. Community pharmacies continue to strengthen prevention efforts, and since 2021 they have delivered nearly 4.2 million blood pressure checks, supporting earlier detection and management of key CVD risk factors.