§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the implementation of the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease(a) nationally and (b) in the West Midlands. [136579]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 6 November 2000]: The National Service Framework (NSF) for coronary heart disease 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 capacity, increasing specialised workforce, improved prevention and faster access to services.
The National Health Service Plan of 27 July is providing significant new money for CHD services:
investment in heart disease services will be increased by an extra £230 million a year by 2003–04. In addition, there will be an extra £120 million of capital funding from the Treasury Capital Modernisation Fund over the next two years to March 2002, to expand capacity and modernise services. Furthermore, an extra £10 million has been announced to increase cardiac operations by a further 3,000 by 2003, in addition to the £50 million announced in October 1999 for an extra 3,000 operations by April 2002.Emergency care for heart attack patients is being reformed in a three year programme to train and equip ambulance paramedics to provide thrombolysis safely for appropriate patients. On average, patients will get thrombolysis one hour sooner than if they were taken to hospital first, saving up to 3,000 lives a year once fully implemented.Additional investment announced this year includes £49 million new money for early CHD wins, £21 million to speed up ambulance response times, £15 million to support new rapid access chest pain clinics, £10 million for equipment to diagnose and treat CHD, and £3 million for the CHD Partnership programme.
Actions are under way to implement the NSF in the West Midlands in line with the milestones set nationally. Local delivery plans for implementation of the NSF have been received from the thirteen West Midlands health authorities.
Particular local initiatives include: 11 rapid access chest pain clinics across the region in the first roll out, including one at the Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry; New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, will be developed as the fourth cardiac surgical centre in the region; the Black Country CHD Collaborative are developing a network of cardiac care; Action Heart at Dudley and Shropshire health authority's Help to Quit are excellent initiatives in cardiac rehabilitation and smoking cessation respectively.