Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote earlier detection and diagnosis of heart valve disease in women and to ensure better outcomes.
Heart valve disease (HVD) affects over 1.5 million people over the age of 65 years old in the United Kingdom, and this number is expected to increase in line with general population growth and the increase in the number of older people. Continuous improvements have been made in the HVD pathway for service users, but there remains unwarranted variation and inequalities in gender.
A review of health inequalities for all specialised cardiac services, including aortic stenosis services, a type of HVD, is currently being undertaken. This will specifically consider the presentation of males versus females with aortic stenosis. In addition, work to improve HVD outcomes includes: