Atrial Fibrillation

(asked on 27th March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to identify people with atrial fibrillation at high risk of stroke who are (1) not anticoagulated, or (2) not maintained in therapeutic range.


Answered by
Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait
Lord O'Shaughnessy
This question was answered on 4th April 2017

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced guidance and quality standards on anticoagulation for people with atrial fibrillation. NHS England has identified improved management of atrial fibrillation as a priority for reducing premature mortality.

Tools are available that enable general practitioners (GPs) to monitor whether patients are in the therapeutic range or not. There are also incentives for GPs to ensure that atrial fibrillation patients receive appropriate anticoagulation.

NHS England continue to support and promote the use of an audit tool that enables GPs to search patients’ data in order to identify patients at a high risk of atrial fibrillation, and then review those patients’ treatment options. In practices that use the tool regularly, there has been an increase in high risk patients prescribed oral anticoagulants (from 61% to 68%), with a corresponding decrease in high risk patients prescribed antiplatelets, such as aspirin (from 28% to 21%).

Reticulating Splines