Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) secondary school and (b) university students participating in organised sport are routinely tested for heart health.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommends screening babies for heart problems in pregnancy and twice in the newborn period. These programmes are run successfully in the National Health Service. The UK NSC does not recommend routine testing for heart health in older children. The committee reviewed the evidence for screening for risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in people under the age of 39 years old in 2019 and concluded that screening should not be offered. The committee’s review is available at the following link:

https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/

Research showed that current tests are not accurate enough to use in young people without symptoms, and that treatments and interventions were not based on good scientific evidence to prevent SCD.

To reduce SCD in young people, the current consensus is to focus on the rapid identification and care of people who are likely to be at risk of SCD, due mainly to a family link or because they have had symptoms, and to train people to carry out cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and to use defibrillators.

NHS England has published guidance for inherited cardiac conditions, a major cause of SCD in young people, which requires services to investigate patients with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease, suggestive symptoms, or patients who are from families with sudden unexplained deaths. Where a genetic variation is identified, cascade testing should be offered to relatives based on risk.

We are aware that the UK NSC has received a submission via its annual call process to consider SCD screening in young people aged between 14 and 35 years old engaging in sport. The UK NSC has included this in their review of screening for SCD which is currently under way.