Written question asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench) on Tuesday, 24 November 2015, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 8 December 2015. It was answered by Lord Prior of Brampton (Conservative) on Tuesday, 8 December 2015 on behalf of the Department of Health.
Atrial Fibrillation: Screening
- Question
-
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to promote opportunistic screening for atrial fibrillation.
- Original answer
-
NHS England is encouraging clinical commissioning groups to work with local practices to target people at risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Innovative approaches such as pulse testing at flu clinics and by some dentists are being used to identify AF in older people. The NHS Health Check programme’s best practice guidance also recommends a pulse check is carried out as part of the process of taking a blood pressure reading. People found to have an irregular pulse rhythm should be referred to the general practitioner for further investigation.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an updated guideline on AF in June 2014. This offers evidence-based advice on the care and treatment of people with AF and includes recommendations on diagnosis. In July 2015 NICE also published a quality standard on AF.
In addition to its clinical guideline on AF, NICE has published technology appraisal guidance on a number of new oral anticoagulants (NOACs), approving them for certain patients.
There is a legal requirement on commissioners to provide funding for treatments and drugs recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of the guidance being published.This is enshrined in the NHS Constitution as a right to NICE-approved drugs.
A consensus statement by the NICE Implementation Collaborative was published alongside NICE’s updated guideline in June 2014. This addresses some of the barriers to implementing NICE’s recommendations on prescribing NOACs.
The need to reduce variation and strengthen compliance of the uptake of NICE technology appraisals was identified in Innovation Health and Wealth, published in December 2011. In response, NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre now publishes on a quarterly basis an Innovation Scorecard to enable commissioners to benchmark their own position and increase transparency to patients and the public. This assists the NHS in the identification of variation and the adoption of treatments such as NOACs that are recommended in NICE technology appraisals. In addition, NHS England advises that it expects practitioners to consider anticoagulant treatments in line with NICE guidelines.
Some progress is being made. The uptake of NOACs across England has doubled in recent years from 45,708 per 100,000 of the resident population in 2013-14 to 126,845 in 2014-15.
No assessment has been made of the number of strokes related to AF could be prevented each year through the roll-out of Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation in primary care. However, in 2014, an economic analysis estimated that if all eligible patients at high risk were managed according to the NICE AF guidelines, an additional 11,600 AF related strokes per year could be avoided.
Copies of the guidance referred to have been placed in the Library.
-
The answer was corrected by Lord Prior of Brampton (Conservative)
on Wednesday, 9 December 2015 on behalf of the Department of Health.
- Corrected answer
-
NHS England is encouraging clinical commissioning groups to work with local practices to target people at risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Innovative approaches such as pulse testing at flu clinics and by some dentists are being used to identify AF in older people. The NHS Health Check programme’s best practice guidance also recommends a pulse check is carried out as part of the process of taking a blood pressure reading. People found to have an irregular pulse rhythm should be referred to the general practitioner for further investigation.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an updated guideline on AF in June 2014. This offers evidence-based advice on the care and treatment of people with AF and includes recommendations on diagnosis. In July 2015 NICE also published a quality standard on AF.
In addition to its clinical guideline on AF, NICE has published technology appraisal guidance on a number of new oral anticoagulants (NOACs), approving them for certain patients.
There is a legal requirement on commissioners to provide funding for treatments and drugs recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of the guidance being published.This is enshrined in the NHS Constitution as a right to NICE-approved drugs.
A consensus statement by the NICE Implementation Collaborative was published alongside NICE’s updated guideline in June 2014. This addresses some of the barriers to implementing NICE’s recommendations on prescribing NOACs.
The need to reduce variation and strengthen compliance of the uptake of NICE technology appraisals was identified in Innovation Health and Wealth, published in December 2011. In response, NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre now publishes on a quarterly basis an Innovation Scorecard to enable commissioners to benchmark their own position and increase transparency to patients and the public. This assists the NHS in the identification of variation and the adoption of treatments such as NOACs that are recommended in NICE technology appraisals. In addition, NHS England advises that it expects practitioners to consider anticoagulant treatments in line with NICE guidelines.
Some progress is being made. The uptake of NOACs across England has doubled in recent years from 45,708 per 100,000 of the resident population in 2013-14 to 126,845 in 2014-15.
No assessment has been made of the number of strokes related to AF could be prevented each year through the roll-out of Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation in primary care. However, in 2014, an economic analysis estimated that if all eligible patients at high risk were managed according to the NICE AF guidelines, an additional 11,600 AF related strokes per year could be avoided.Copies of the guidance referred to have been placed in the Library.No assessment has been made of the number of strokes related to AF could be prevented each year through the roll-out of Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation (GRASP-AF) in primary care. However, in 2014, an economic analysis estimated that if all eligible patients at high risk were managed according to the NICE AF guidelines, an additional 11,600 AF related strokes per year could be avoided.
Copies of the guidance referred to, excluding GRASP-AF have been placed in the Library.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- HL3855
- Session
- 2015-16
- Related items
- Grouped for answer
- Yes
- Subjects
- Screening Atrial fibrillation
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2024-08-28 18:08:48 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/lords/2015-16/HL3855
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/lords/2015-16/HL3855
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/lords/2015-16/HL3855