Heart Diseases: Surgery
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the progress towards NHS England's 2018 commissioning target of 1,000 Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion procedures per annum.
Answered by Mrs Sharon Hodgson
Oversight of left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) activity and delivery sits with integrated care boards and NHS England regional commissioning teams, who work in close collaboration with cardiac networks to monitor activity and equity of access for patients across England.
NHS England has not undertaken a formal national assessment of regional access or uptake of LAAO. The original Commissioning through Evaluation programme estimated demand and future growth in LAAO activity, although it was not a commissioning target.
NHS England commissioned the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research to develop a national LAAO registry, which is publicly available and supports transparency of activity and outcomes. Further information on the LAAO registry is available at the following link:
https://www.nicor.org.uk/interactive-reports/left-atrial-appendage-occlusion-laao-registry
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