Written question asked by Brian Iddon (Labour) on Wednesday, 12 November 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 17 November 2008. It was answered by Ann Keen (Labour) on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Aortic Aneurysm: Screening

Question: (4) what estimate he has made of the number of lives which will be saved in a year following the introduction of the NHS abdominal aortic aneurysm screening programme.

Answer: Six early implementation sites have been identified and will start screening by summer 2009. The sites are West Sussex (Royal West Sussex NHS trust), Leicester (University Hospitals of Leicester NHS trust), Gloucester (Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS foundation trust), South Manchester (University Hospital of South Manchester NHS foundation trust), South Devon and Exeter (South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Devon and Exeter NHS foundation trust) and South West London (St George's Healthcare NHS trust). It is anticipated that full national roll out will be achieved by the end of March 2012; work is under way with strategic health authorities to plan for this.Once fully implemented it is expected that the screening programme will save approximately 700 lives within the first 10 years of screening rising eventually to 1,600 per year.

Secondary information