Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce misdiagnoses of people under the age of 35 with cardiac symptoms.

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for specialised inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification in line with the national service specification methods review process. NHS England is working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of this review including National Health Service clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation. The Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

These documents describe the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients. They cover all paediatric cardiac activity, including both surgery and cardiology, taking place in the Specialist Children’s Surgical Centres, which are Level 1 services, the Specialist Children’s Cardiology Centres, Level 2 services, and the Local Children’s Cardiac Centres, Level 3 services, including activity undertaken by the specialist centres on an outreach basis, where it is delivered as part of a provider network, with the aim of ensuring that all patient care is of a consistently high quality.