Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-06-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of heart failure patients who have access to heart failure specialist nurses.
Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England is working with key partners to ensure better co-ordination and integration of all services with the aim of delivering person-centred and coordinated care which is tailored to the needs and preferences of the individual, their carer and family.
In particular, to encourage better practice in the caring for heart failure patients, NHS England has established a best practice tariff for acute heart failure. It is also working with Health Education England to explore ways of improving the provision of and increasing access to echocardiography, which is used for the diagnosis of heart failure.
To help the NHS understand what a good quality service looks like, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publish quality standards which define best practice within a topic area and it has published quality standards for acute and chronic heart failure. NHS England expects all commissioners and providers to take account of quality standards in the services that are delivered to patients.
NICE has developed a commissioning toolkit for the use of natriuretic peptides assessment in primary care for suspected heart failure. It has also produced guidance on acute heart failure and chronic heart failure, both of which cover the use of natriuretic peptides.
NICE guidance and quality standards are published online only, but due to the complexity and length of their content, they cannot be included as attachments.
