Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect the work of strategic clinical networks has had on (a) cardiovascular disease outcomes and (b) the quality of anticoagulation services.

Strategic clinical networks (SCNs) across the country are working with their local health communities to improve the quality of cardiovascular disease services and many produce an annual report which provides information on their activities and the impact they have made.

Examples of the action some SCNs have taken to improve anticoagulation services include:

- The London Cardiovascular SCN has been mapping the various anti-coagulation models that exist across the different settings with a view to improving commissioning of these services;

- Wessex SCN has been working collaboratively with the academic health science network to understand variation in anticoagulation practice in Wessex so that this can be addressed; and

- The South East Coast SCN has collaborated with the academic health science network to develop an enhancing quality pathway for anticoagulation of atrial fibrillation (AF) in secondary care and to explore collaborative working with the pharma sector in promoting good AF management and anticoagulation in primary care.