Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce waiting times for the treatment of chronic heart disease.

The National Health Service has set a standard maximum wait of six weeks from referral to out-patient investigations such as echocardiograms.

The NHS Long Term Plan will ensure that an additional 54,000 people with heart failure or valvular heart disease will be detected and diagnosed. It will also ensure optimisation of management and treatment of patients admitted to hospital.

In addition, the Getting It Right First Time cardiothoracic surgery report has identified activity and financial opportunities to reduce waiting times for urgent coronary artery bypass grafting.