MPs back new report promoting ‘Healthy Hearts’ across the nation

A collection of articles from University of Manchester experts which provides a roadmap to tackle the national cardiovascular health crisis has been warmly received in Westminster.

‘Healthy Hearts’ incorporates academic research on cardiovascular disease (CVD) which now results in someone’s death in the UK every three minutes.

In her foreword for the report published by Policy@Manchester, the Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation, Dr Charmaine Griffiths, warns that CVD is now one of the country’s biggest killers, “tearing families apart and causing untold heartbreak to far too many.”

In the last half a century, huge strides have been made to halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK each year. But worryingly, this progress is now at risk.”

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive, British Heart Foundation

‘Healthy Hearts’ covers a plethora of issues pertinent to cardiovascular health, from heart disease in cancer survivors, to the effects of air pollution on heart health. It also includes an international perspective on the impact of cardiovascular deaths in developing countries around the world.

After reading the document, Labour MP Dr Simon Opher, a former GP and now Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Health Group, believes that ‘Healthy Hearts’ should prompt policymakers to address the threat of CVD.

“Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said we need to switch our medical care from cure to prevention,” he observes. “The ‘Healthy Hearts’ report shows exactly why. Making better use of digital technologies and predictive tools could prevent many deaths from cardiovascular disease. The science is well known and yet currently in our NHS this isn’t being done.”

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, Chair of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, notes the recommendations in ‘Health Hearts’ on the use of NHS health checks.

“As this report states, health checks often fail to reach the people who might benefit most,” she comments. “This chimes with evidence we heard in our session on progress in preventing CVD. We were concerned to hear that rates of uptake of health checks vary widely and we have called on the Government to improve monitoring to track the uptake of checks. We want to see concrete action to drive improved uptake amongst people at high risk.”

Her party colleague Helen Morgan, the MP for North Shropshire and Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health and Care, also welcomes the University of Manchester report, seeing it as a valuable guide that the Government should not ignore.

“Focusing on prevention will boost health and boost the economy,” she says. “Tackling pollution and reducing the burden of expensive treatment should be an important priority for any country and I hope the Government will carefully consider the ‘Healthy Hearts’ proposals.”

This is an approach endorsed by Dr Opher MP – a view sure to be taken seriously by Ministers, given his almost three decades of first-hand experience in general practice.

“I believe it is time to target our strategy on prevention, as well as modifying our environment to improve health,” he argues. “We need clean air, we need a healthy diet to lower obesity, and we need to test the people who are most at risk. This will prevent more death and disability from CVD."

‘Healthy Hearts’ is available to read free of charge on the Policy@Manchester website.