Extracts from Laura Donnerlly – 2019
Henry Bodkin-2019
The NHS announces a new plan to have pharmacies check shoppers heart health in a bid to cut deaths.
Shoppers will be offered on-the-spot NHS heart checks to detect signs of killer conditions.
High street pharmacies will be overhauled under the national plan to prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks and strokes within a decade.
From October 2019, chemists will begin rolling out the “rapid detection service,” which includes mobile electrocardiograms to spot irregular heartbeats, as well as checks on blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
If successful, the scheme will be rolled out to every pharmacist in the country within three years.
The plans aim to identify those at risk far earlier, when treatment and lifestyle changes are most likely to be effective.
Pharmacists will be expected to dole out advice on exercise and diet, with results passed directly to GP practices, who can prescribe the right medication.
Heart disease is Britain’s biggest killer, with deaths from heart attacks, strokes and circulatory diseases accounting for 160,000 deaths in the UK every year.
More than 7 million people are living with heart and circulatory diseases.
Deaths from heart disease among under-75s are on the rise for the first time in 50 years, figures reveal.
Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity are all playing a role in driving up deaths among younger people, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said.
A new report from the charity said the historic pace of progress in reducing deaths “has slowed to a near standstill”, with heart and circulatory disease deaths in people under 75 now on the rise.
Millions of people are also living with undiagnosed conditions including high blood pressure and diabetes that increases their risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke.
“These factors, combined with a growing population, mean that increasing numbers of people are now dying from heart and circulatory diseases before their 75th or even 65th birthdays for the first time in more than 50 years,” the report said.
In 2017, 42,384 people died from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK before the age of 75, a rise of just over three per cent on the 41,042 in 2014.
Among under-65s, there were 18,668 deaths in 2017, up almost 4 per cent on the 17,982 five years earlier.
In the five-year period beforehand, there had been a 19 per cent decline among under-65s.
The shift represents a real slowdown – until recently, deaths for heart and circulatory disease had seen a 75 per cent cut since 1971.
Circulatory diseases include stroke and diseases of the arteries such as peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysm and carotid artery disease.