Harrogate and Rural District CCG (HaRD CCG) is coming together with healthcare providers across the region this month to tackle the area’s biggest killer. The West Yorkshire and Harrogate’s Healthy Hearts programme aims to help reduce the impact of heart disease and prevent the number of heart-related illnesses, including heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.
The programme, created by the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health Care Partnership, aims to reduce the number of people affected by heart disease by 10% by 2021, meaning 1,100 fewer cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidents by 2021.
Dr Youssef Beaini, clinical lead for the programme said:
We’re delivering Healthy Hearts in three phases. Phase one sees us working to help local GP’s identify patients with undiagnosed high blood pressure (hypertension), and we estimate there may be up to 18,000 across the region, which can often be an indicator of cardiovascular disease.
By equipping local GPs with the latest advice and guidance on the most effective treatments, we’ll be able to reduce the number of local people suffering heart attacks and strokes.
We also estimate that there’s a group of are nearly 40,000 patients across the region, who’ve already been diagnosed with Hypertension, that will benefit from simple improvements to their existing medication. In fact, we believe that phase one alone will prevent 285 heart attacks and 421 strokes across West Yorkshire and Harrogate, saving the NHS £8m.
Bruce Willoughby, HaRD CCG GP Governing Body Member and Clinical Lead for Primary Care said:
By working together all the partners in the Healthy Hearts Programme will be able to share learning and help embed the benefits of the programme across the region.
We also want to help people understand there’s a lot they can do themselves to reduce the risk factors that lead to cardiovascular disease, such as maintaining a healthy weight, stopping smoking, eating a healthy diet and moderating alcohol consumption.
It’s never too late to start looking after your heart and we’re working with the Healthy Hearts Programme to help patients make the kinds of lifestyle changes needed to stay healthy.