We’ve teamed up with health organisations and partners from across the Vale of York to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease and launch a new healthy hearts programme.

Healthy Hearts aims to reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack among people considered to be most at risk and to reduce the number of people dying prematurely from heart disease or other circulatory disease.

The Challenge

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are one of the main causes of death in England – and were responsible for 33% of deaths in 2010. Coronary heart disease and stroke accounted for the majority of those deaths.

In the Vale of York CCG area, circulatory disease is one of the main causes of death with more than 880 deaths each year.

Spending in our local hospitals for urgent care for problems with blood circulation was significantly higher than other similar areas. This suggests we could significantly improve CVD prevention and risk factor management.

Our Objectives

We aim to reduce the number of people who die from cardiovascular disease by at least 10%, to include 78 strokes and 102 heart attacks per year by 2022.

By helping people to lower their cholesterol levels we aim to prevent 21 heart attacks and 29 strokes per year. As part of the programme, local GPs are prescribing a more effective statin which reduces cholesterol for people with established cardiovascular disease.

As part of the programme we are reviewing people who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation to ensure their coagulation medicines (such as warfarin) are well-managed and maintained.

We are also working on plans to help detect people with high blood pressure and help them manage it more effectively.

Locally, we are working with clinicians from York Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust to review the treatment options available and ensure that the service offered by consultants and GPs is seamless.

Healthy Hearts

The ambitious Healthy Hearts project, which aims to reduce the number of people who die from cardiovascular disease by at least 10% in the next five years, focuses on the following main areas:

• prevention- particularly focussing on hypertension (high blood pressure)
• cardiovascular disease – including patients with high cholesterol, high blood
  pressure, diabetes and peripheral arterial disease
• managing atrial fibrillation (AF), an abnormal heart rhythm that vastly increases the risk of stroke, through the best possible treatment
• there are lots of things you can do yourself to reduce your own risk – see the
  Patients Information and Lifestyles section

Additional Resources

A range of professional resources can be found here