Last week I asked a question in the House of Commons about aortic dissection, the terrible condition which causes 2000 preventable deaths every year and which has had a huge impact on my family. The Minister responded setting out some of the measures which the Government have taken to improve the diagnosis and treatment of aortic dissection including the NHS aortic dissection toolkit launched in March of this year, and agreed to meet with me and the other trustees of the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust.
You can read the full text of my question in the House of Commons here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-11-01/debates/D490E301-938E-4572-9B94-AC4E9E3CEF75/TopicalQuestions#contribution-230CA5C2-A303-47FB-8AAD-F1CFF1411E5D
Subsequently, I was very grateful to my colleagues, Health Ministers Will Quince and Helen Whately, for taking the time to meet with me so swiftly to discuss the whole patient pathway for aortic dissection with my fellow trustees from the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust.
We had a wide-ranging discussion and briefed the Ministers on the work of the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust, as well as stressing the importance of continuing the good work the government has started to achieve quicker diagnoses and better long-term outcomes for patients suffering type A and aortic dissection.
The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust is doing extremely powerful work and you can read more about it at https://aorticdissectioncharitabletrust.org/. Aortic dissection is a devastating condition which most people have never heard of until it affects their lives – and the Trust is working hard with Ministers to make sure that we save as many lives as we can each year, through research funding, educating medical professionals, and ensuring consistency of diagnosis, follow-up and genetic testing.