CVD is a leading cause of premature death, health inequalities, economic inactivity and cost to health and social care.

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CVD is highly preventable, through:

 

1. Lifestyle change

2. Treatment of high-risk conditions.

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Large numbers of people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and kidney disease are not on recommended preventive treatments. These conditions often have no symptoms and can be difficult to manage well in high pressure GP consultations.

 

Developed with UCLPartners, the Size of the Prize research shows the scale of the challenge and the scale of the opportunity. For example, in England:

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• A third of people with diagnosed hypertension are not treated to target, with huge variation between GP practices.

• Improving care so that 4 in 5 people were treated to target would prevent around thousands of heart attacks and strokes every year, with major savings for the economy.

 

The national Mission to reduce deaths from CVD by a quarter in ten years will not be delivered without a step change in the treatment of the high risk conditions.

 

We know that optimal care is hard to deliver in real world primary care:​

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• Complexity, multimorbidity and time pressure is the norm

• Skewed incentives reward clinical achievement on one specific day in the year, instead of 365 days

• Patients find access difficult

• Staff have no head space to even consider reform

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To deliver a step change in care and outcomes, real-world solutions need to address these real- world challenges.