§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about the targets he has set health authorities for coronary care services.[126111]
§ Yvette CooperThe National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease was published on 6 March. The Framework sets 12 national standards for improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and goals to secure fair access to high quality services over the 10-year period. This will include building up capacity, increasing the specialist workforce, improving prevention and creating faster access to services.
Last October we announced a £50 million investment for the expansion of cardiac surgery. Last month we announced a further investment of £50 million, to be used to establish rapid access chest pain clinics, to speed up ambulance response times, to purchase defibrillators and to reduce waiting times for treatment.
Regional offices are working with their health authorities and National Health Service trusts to ensure that these resources are targeted most effectively to increase the use of marginal capacity and to meet the greatest need within their region. A top priority for Dr. Roger Boyle, the National Director for Heart Disease, is to look with regional offices and with cardiac centres at the initial plans to ensure that we make the very best use of all the available skills and capacity.