Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes all heart and circulatory diseases, such as coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack, congenital heart disease, hypertension, stroke and vascular dementia. Having an ageing population means that if we do nothing the number of heart attacks and strokes will increase.
The NHS Long Term Plan sets the ambition for the NHS to help prevent over 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases over the next 10 years and outlines how we, and partners, will meet this ambition.
Low diagnosis rates in England mean that:
- 5 million people will have undiagnosed high blood pressure (hypertension)
- 40% of people with diagnosed hypertension are not treated to the NICE 140/90 target
- Half of all people with known atrial fibrillation (AF) who have a stroke are not anticoagulated
Fewer than one person in 10 survives an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in the UK and a national network of community first responders and defibrillators will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028. In addition, only 53% of people are referred to cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack/ cardiac surgery and only 33% of those with heart failure
NEW! Training Directory for heart disease specialty (published October 2023)
Heart disease is a key clinical priority, set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. There are currently 6.4 million people across England, living with heart disease and some are facing agonising waits for care.
It is for this reason that job retention and development and upskilling of the multidisciplinary (MDT) heart team must be improved. The development of extended roles and upskilling the whole heart team is important to the delivery of high quality and integrated services.
A new training directory has been developed by the Long Term Conditions programme team, which is a centralised repository of career competencies and pathways, higher education resources and short courses, to help the NHS workforce develop a career in heart disease specialty and expand their clinical expertise. To view the training directory, please click here