Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department is undertaking to identify the most vulnerable people to heart failure as a result of covid-19; and what community outreach measures are in place to ensure accessibility to treatment for the BAME patients who are vulnerable to heart failure.

The Department has not undertaken the specific research. However, NHS Digital, the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement, have been working on data collation and analysis on the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular disease services.

The use of national datasets enabled by this work will help inform decisions around those who are most at risk of heart failure as a result of COVID-19. This work will also increase our understanding of the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on cardiovascular disease and inform future policy.