British Heart Foundation: Tipping Point Report

Baroness Merron Excerpts

Tuesday 8th November 2022 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Merron]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report by the British Heart Foundation, Tipping Point, published on 3 November; and what steps they intend to take in response to the finding that from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to August 2022 there were 30,000 excess deaths involving coronary heart disease in England.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Markham) (Con)]

This is a detailed report that requires time to be fully considered. NHSE has been monitoring excess deaths and has put in place the cardiovascular disease prevention recovery plan. This prioritises support to help systems, including prevention planning, risk-factor diagnosis, monitoring and management, to recover to pre-pandemic levels; it also tracks progress and ensures that interventions are effectively targeted. The plan includes resources to create CVD prevention leadership roles in every integrated care system from April 2022.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My Lords, British Heart Foundation analysis has found that millions of missing heart patients, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, are struggling to get care for conditions such as high blood pressure. At the same time, modelling by NHS England suggests that a decline in blood pressure management could lead to more than 11,000 extra heart attacks and nearly 17,000 additional strokes in the next three years. What are the Government doing to identify and treat these missing patients? How will they address the backlogs in every part of the system, which are affecting time-critical emergency care?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

It is quite right that blood pressure management or hypertension is a key indicator. That is why we have put in place many points when people’s blood pressure can be measured. Anyone who has had a Covid vaccination recently would have had their blood pressure taken. This can now be performed at—