Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to develop a national strategy for the early detection of heart valve disease.

We are committed to reducing premature deaths from heart disease and stroke and we recognise that improving the detection and treatment of heart valve disease is an important step to achieving this ambition. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF) later this year. The CVD MSF will prioritise ambitious, evidence-led, and clinically informed approaches to prevention, treatment, and care, and as part of its development we are engaging widely to identify and consider the role of emerging innovations across the cardiovascular pathway.

High blood pressure is a key risk factor for heart valve disease, and the Government has invested heavily in the Hypertension Case-finding Service for those aged over 40 years old in community pharmacies, which has seen nearly 4.2 million blood pressure and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring checks delivered since October 2021.

Alongside this, in 2025, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme published new and revised cardiology pathways to support consistent care across primary and secondary settings, including advice regarding patients with severe symptomatic heart valve disease.