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29th February 2016

Healthy Hearts makes it to shortlist of more national awards

Bradford’s innovative Healthy Hearts campaign has hit the right chord with more national award judges.

Hot on the heels of its recent success at the General Practice Awards, the team from NHS Bradford Districts Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been shortlisted in the clinical leadership section of the BMJ Awards 2016.

The team scooped general practice team of the year and clinical team of the year – cardiovascular, in the General Practice Awards. The winners of the BMJ awards will be announced in May.

Dr Chris Harris, long-term conditions lead at the CCG, said: “Being shortlisted for another national award is further recognition for all the hard work and dedication that the Bradford’s Healthy Hearts team has put into making it such a success.

“Working closely with hospital consultants and other health professionals, GPs in Bradford are pulling out all the stops to reduce the number of people suffering from cardiovascular disease. We are confident that Healthy Hearts is leading the way in the prevention, diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease.”

Bradford’s biggest killer is cardiovascular disease (CVD) – a collection of conditions (such as stroke, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease and heart failure) which affect the heart and blood vessels. 

Bradford’s Healthy Hearts has so far helped 10,000 patients in the Bradford area and has already potentially prevented 50 heart attacks and 50 strokes.  More than 800 people in the Bradford area are now on vital stroke preventive medicine which has reduced the risk of stroke by up to 75% in these patients, avoiding nearly 50 devastating strokes per year.

The risk of stroke for people with atrial fibrillation (AF) – a heart rhythm disorder - can be reduced by more than two-thirds by taking an anticoagulant medication – such as warfarin – prescribed by a doctor.  In the first phase of the campaign, GPs also reviewed patients taking cholesterol-lowering statins to ensure that they were receiving the best care available to reduce their risk of a future stroke and heart attack.

By switching to different statins, over 5,000 patients have reduced their cholesterol level, and over 4,000 patients at moderate to high risk of heart attack and stroke have been prescribed statins to reduce their risk.

Healthy Hearts is aimed at reducing the risk of stroke and heart attack in people who are in risk groups and is being developed over three years targeting three main areas:

  • vascular disease – including patients with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and peripheral arterial disease
  • atrial fibrillation (AF) – a condition which triggers abnormalities in the rhythm of the heart
  • heart failure.

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