Charmaine Griffiths
Chief Executive, British Heart Foundation
In 2022, an average of 750 people died weekly from conditions including heart attacks, coronary disease and stroke before their 75th birthday.
Recent British Heart Foundation (BHF) analysis shows that the number and rate of people dying before 75 in England from heart and circulatory diseases is at its highest for over a decade.
Rising cardiovascular disease mortality
It’s the third successive year the premature death rate has risen and the first time in almost 60 years that we’ve seen the reversal of hard-won progress to reduce early death from cardiovascular disease.
These stark statistics are heartbreaking evidence of a crisis many years in the making. Ultimately, we don’t know exactly what is driving the rise in early deaths from cardiovascular disease.
Disruption caused by the pandemic and ongoing, increasing pressure on the NHS has undoubtedly had a significant impact. People living with heart disease must contend with long waits for tests and treatment; intervals between their medical reviews are becoming too long. The direct impact of Covid-19 illness on the heart has also likely played a part. However, warning signs of lost progress have been present for over a decade.
Despite the efforts of hard-working
NHS staff, heart care services
are struggling at every step.
Closing heart health disparities
Since 2010, the health gap between rich and poor has significantly widened. Meanwhile, there hasn’t been enough action over the last decade to address cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and obesity — storing up huge challenges for the future.
Despite the efforts of hard-working NHS staff, heart care services are struggling at every step — from prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery to crucial research that could give us faster and better treatments.
We can’t let this tragedy continue. With urgent and long-overdue intervention, we can regain lost progress and save more lives from cardiovascular disease.
Stopping the heart care crisis
Three main courses of action are needed:
- Improving prevention of cardiovascular disease causes, focused on the drivers of health inequalities such as obesity and smoking;
- Making NHS heart care a priority, with specific plans for cardiovascular disease that identify and address NHS cardiac staffing gaps, so patients get necessary care more quickly;
- Supercharging cardiovascular research to unlock groundbreaking treatments and cures.
Reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease was once the nation’s big success story, thanks to bold public health measures and groundbreaking science. With immediate, sweeping action and enough political willpower, it can be that way again.
