Healthy Hearts: New Report Sets Out Path Towards a Healthier Nation
Credit: iStock.com/sturti
With more people dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease than at any point in the last decade, Britain is facing a heart health crisis. Now, a new report produced by experts at The University of Manchester has set out a bold plan to prevent thousands of deaths, ease pressure on the NHS, and tackle the hidden factors that make heart disease the nation’s biggest killer.
Despite decades of progress, the UK is currently in the grip of a heart health crisis. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) leads to the premature deaths of 160,000 people each year in the UK. That number is higher than at any time in the last decade with near-record numbers languishing on cardiac waiting lists.
These are the worrying findings of a recently launched report published by Policy@Manchester, the policy research institute of The University of Manchester. However, the good news is that as well as laying bare the scale of the challenges faced, the new Healthy Hearts report also sets out practical ways to address the crisis, based on research evidence from Manchester academics. If the recommendations were to be implemented, they could prevent thousands of deaths, ease the strain on the NHS, and reduce the spiralling costs of cardiovascular care.
“Every three minutes in the UK, someone dies from cardiovascular disease. It remains one of the UK's biggest killers, tearing families apart and causing untold heartbreak to far too many,” Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive, British Heart Foundation (BHF) writes in the report’s foreword. “In the last half a century, huge strides have been made to halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK each year. But worryingly, this progress is now at risk.”
As the NHS struggles under the weight of mounting pressures, heart care appears to be slipping further down the priority list. That threatens not just individual lives but the economy too, with heart disease now the leading cause of people leaving the workforce early due to ill health. The cost of CVD to the NHS is also staggering. Each year, heart disease accounts for around £12 billion in direct healthcare costs. The report authors warn that figure will continue to rise if the current crisis is left unaddressed.
The articles in the Healthy Hearts report cover a range of issues on cardiovascular health, from heart disease in cancer survivors, to the effects of air pollution on heart health, and the impact of cardiovascular disease in developing countries. Together, the pieces in the collection emphasise the significance of cardiovascular health on the population and highlight the steps that can be taken to save thousands of lives.
Dr Simon Opher MP, Chair of the Health APPG, was a practicing GP for almost three decades. He told PoliticsHome that the report should serve as a wake-up call to address the rising tide of CVD.
“Wes Streeting the Health Secretary has said we need to switch our medical care from cure to prevention,” he tells us. “The Healthy Hearts report shows exactly why. Making better use of digital technologies and predictive tools could prevent many deaths from cardiovascular disease. The science is well known and yet currently in our NHS this isn’t being done.”
Opher’s plea for more rapid adoption of new technologies is one of the key areas highlighted by the Manchester researchers. The report suggests that better use of digital technology could transform existing routine NHS Health Checks into a powerful tool for prevention shifting to a more holistic, patient-centred approach.
That shift in the way that Health Checks are used is also something Layla Moran MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, would like to see. She told PoliticsHome that the Healthy Hearts recommendations echo evidence received by her Committee.
“As this report states, Health Checks often fail to reach the people who might benefit most,” she told us. “This chimes with evidence we heard in our session on progress in preventing CVD. We were concerned to hear that rates of uptake of Health Checks vary widely and we have called on the Government to improve monitoring to track the uptake of checks. We want to see concrete action to drive improved uptake amongst people at high risk.”
Better use of Health Checks would shift the emphasis to prevention and help ensure that patients receive the right care at the right time. The report authors suggest that the upcoming Ten Year Health Plan could provide a vital opportunity to get CVD care back on track and ensure that patients have access to the joined-up, personalised care they need.
If that step change was delivered, then thousands of lives could be saved. Much of the CVD burden is preventable and BHF analysis suggests that with the right action, up to 11,000 early deaths a year from heart and circulatory diseases could be avoided by 2035 in England. As Dr Griffiths puts it, “Reversing a decade of lost progress in tackling CVD is within our reach.”
Helen Morgan MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health and Care, told PoliticsHome that she welcomed the new report, seeing it as a valuable roadmap that the government must not ignore.
“Focusing on prevention will boost health and boost the economy,” she told us. “Tackling pollution and reducing the burden of expensive treatment should be an important priority for any country and I hope the Government will carefully consider the Healthy Hearts proposals.”
It is a strategy that Dr Simon Opher MP also supports, having seen firsthand the impact of CVD on patients during his years as a GP.
“I believe it is time to target our strategy on prevention, as well as modifying our environment to improve health,” Opher explains. “We need clean air, we need a healthy diet to lower obesity, and we need to test the people who are most at risk. This will prevent more death and disability from CVD.”
What the report illustrates is that CVD is not an unsolvable problem - solutions do exist, and the evidence is clear. What happens next depends on the willingness of policymakers to act. The new Healthy Hearts report is ultimately a challenge to do better, for the NHS, for the economy, for patients, and for every family who has lost someone too soon.
Healthy Hearts is available to read on the Policy@Manchester website - https://www.policy.manchester.ac.uk/publications/healthy-hearts/
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