Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to continue supporting the implementation of NHS England’s acute aortic dissection toolkit after the proposed abolition of NHS England.

The Department will continue to support the implementation of NHS England’s acute aortic dissection toolkit.

In 2022, NHS England published the Acute Aortic Dissection Toolkit to support service transformation across England. Initial implementation support was provided by NHS England’s national team, however, responsibility for implementation has now transitioned to regional commissioning teams and integrated care boards, to oversee and monitor progress. The toolkit includes self-assessment questionnaires for providers and clinical networks to use as part of their assurance and monitoring processes. In collaboration with the EARNEST trial, NHS England will undertake a stocktake of implementation progress across centres, the findings of which will be shared with regional commissioning teams and clinical networks to support any follow up actions as required.

NHS England’s national team is now working with the vascular and cardiac professional societies to develop a type B, elective aortic dissection toolkit, which is anticipated for publication in 2026.