Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of rolling out routine stethoscope checks by a trained primary care healthcare professional for peopled aged over 65 to ensure the effective diagnosis of heart valve disease.
Whether stethoscope examination of all over 65 year olds would be a cost-effective health intervention is untested and would need further consideration by the UK National Screening Committee.
NHS England has requested that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence prepare and publish guidance on valve disease.