National Health Service Should Take More Sophisticated Approach To Risk In Attempt To Prevent Cardio-vascular Disease, UK

Main Category: Preventive Medicine
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Heart Disease
Article Date: 15 Feb 2009 - 2:00 PST

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The NHS should take a more sophisticated approach to risk in trying to prevent cardio-vascular disease, a new report argues today. The report The Prevention of Cardio-Vascular Disease presents a series of recommendations all aimed at improving the way the health services delivers preventative services.

Cardio-vascular disease is one of the UK's biggest killers, but takes many forms including heart disease, stroke, peripheral arterial disease and kidney disease. Patients may be at risk of more than one of these types of illnesses, and so 'one size fits all' models of prevention may not be appropriate.

Commenting, report author David Furness, SMF Health Project Leader, said:

"The NHS should be congratulated for recognising that preventing cardio-vascular disease is about reducing risk, not just screening for disease. However we need to do more to identify individuals at risk of developing different types of illnesses, and to put in place appropriate interventions to help prevent this. This might be through GP consultations or even early years programmes that help children from developing unhealthy lifestyles that are likely to result in heart disease later in life".

One of the contributors to the report, Professor Roger Boyle, the National Clinical Director for Heart disease, said:

"It has been a long standing ambition of the Department of Health [to make sure that] health promotion and the mechanics of prevention are dealt with in a more holistic way - not just treating heart disease but looking at the entirety of an individual's health".

The Social Market Foundation hopes that this report will play a part in developing a programme of risk assessment and preventative measures that will help to tackle cardio-vascular disease in the coming years.

The report has been produced with the support of Bristol-Myers Squibb and sanofi-aventis, who supported the costs of the seminar and production of the report. The opinions expressed in the report are those of the authors and (where relevant) contributors at the SMF seminars, not those of the two companies.

• The prevention of Cardio-Vascular Disease by David Furness is published today by the Social Market Foundation

• The Social Market Foundation is a leading UK think tank, developing innovative ideas across a broad range of economic and social policy. It champions policy ideas which marry markets with social justice and takes a pro-market rather than free-market approach. www.smf.co.uk

• The report, prevention of Cardio-Vascular Disease, highlights the findings of an expert roundtable which brought together some of the UK's foremost experts in preventing heart disease,

• The report presents the findings of an expert round-table attended by:

-- Professor Roger Boyle, Department of Health
-- Dr Andrew Foulkes, West Sussex PCT
-- David Furness. SMF
-- Barney Gough, SMF
-- Sue Griffith, Department of Health
-- Dr Mike Knapton, British Heart Foundation
-- Dr Gillian Leng, NICE
-- Dr Tom Marshall, University of Birmingham
-- Lyndsay Mountford, SMF
-- Dr Henry Purcell, Royal Brompton Hospital
-- Dr Azhar Rana, Bristol Myers-Squibb
-- Professor Gerard Stansby, Nuffield Hospital, Newcastle on Tyne and Chair of Target PAD Group
-- Dr Tony Whitehead, sanofi Aventis
-- Professor David Wood, Imperial College London

Social Market Foundation
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London SW1P 3QB
www.smf.co.uk

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