Cholesterol

Mike Penning
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what guidance his Department has given to primary care trusts on the delivery of cascade testing for families of patients diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia;

(2) what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of provision of cascade testing for families of patients diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia  by primary care trusts in England, as recommended in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guideline 71;

(3) what measures his Department has in place to monitor the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on familial hypercholesterolemia; and if he will make a statement.

Ann Keen
The Department has not made any assessment or given any guidance to primary care trusts on the delivery of cascade testing for families diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia and has no plans to do so.

The Department has no measures in place to monitor the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on familial hypercholesterolemia. We are facilitating work on a Primary Care Services Framework on familial hypercholesterolemia which is underway at the moment.

The Department has commissioned NHS Primary Care Commissioning to develop, with stakeholders, a Primary Care Service Framework (PCSF) on Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH). PCSFs are model specifications (without benchmark prices) that provide a source of guidance, advice and support to primary care trusts and other National Health Service organisations to effectively commission and provide services using local contacts.