Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease programme

According to the NHS Long Term Plan, Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the single biggest condition where lives can be saved by the NHS over the next 10 years. Poor cardiovascular health can cause heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, peripheral arterial disease and the onset of vascular dementia. CVD affects around seven million people in the UK and is responsible for one in four deaths in the UK; that’s more than 160,000 deaths each year and includes more than 40,000 people under the age of 75.

CVD is also one of the conditions most strongly associated with health inequalities, with those living in England’s most deprived areas being almost four times more likely to die prematurely of CVD than someone in the least deprived areas.

At Health Innovation KSS, our cardiovascular disease prevention programme is planned and delivered collaboratively with partners across Kent, Surrey & Sussex. We are working to improve the detection and management of the high-risk conditions atrial fibrillation (AF), high blood pressure and high cholesterol as well as early diagnosis and treatment of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH).

National Programmes

The national CVD programmes form part of the NHS Long Term Plan, and form a key part of the work that the 15 health innovation networks are carrying out across England. Lipids and FH has been part of our work since 2020, and Blood pressure optimisation, since 2022.

Click to see the Health Innovation Network information on Lipids and FH, and Blood pressure optimisation.

Health Innovation KSS’s work on the national programmes can be found here:

Blood pressure optimisation This project aims to improve the care of patients with known high blood pressure, identify people with undiagnosed high blood pressure, and target those people experiencing health inequalities which leave them susceptible to high blood pressure.

Lipids and Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) This project aims to improve treatment and diagnosis options for patients with high cholesterol, including those with increased genetic susceptibility.

Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme (InHIP) – reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Health Innovation KSS is supporting its three local Integrated Care Systems to improve access to innovations that reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by delivering projects aimed at the specific needs of underserved communities in each county.

Local Programmes

In addition to the National Programme work, we have been undertaking specific projects in the Kent, Surrey and Sussex areas, to tackle local issues around cardiovascular disease (CVD), and pilot a national programme looking at the data around CVD.

Our local programmes in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, are:

CVD Central, offering FREE RESOURCES to providers of blood pressure and pulse checks, supporting them to deliver high quality services. Resources will: help identify priority cohorts, capture patient experience, and enable outcomes to be monitored through clinical templates and searches.

Health Innovation KSS’s Enhancing Quality (EQ+) heart failure (HF) programme takes the data you’re already submitting to the National Heart Failure Audit (NHFA) and delivers monthly reports, presented in a way that will help you drive improvements to Enhancing Quality (EQ) in care. Read more about EQ+.