BHF comment
Time for a new focus on heart disease in Scotland
Heart and circulatory diseases cause nearly 50 deaths each day in Scotland – that’s almost a third of all deaths. Across Scotland, an estimated 700,000 people are living with the daily burden of these conditions, which can devastate lives.
The last Scottish Government Heart Disease Improvement Strategy was published in 2014 but problems persist.
While there has been a significant reduction in death rates since we were established in the 1960s, progress is stalling, and action is needed now if advances are to be maintained.
Covid-19 is widening inequalities
Inequalities in treatment and outcomes are deep rooted and the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be amplifying these.Research suggests that people with underlying health conditions such as coronary heart disease and heart failure are at increased risk of severe complications from coronavirus and an increased risk of death.
The Scottish Government has already committed to spending £117 million on a new cancer strategy and £42 million on a strategy targeting Type 2 diabetes. However, just £1 million has been invested in the heart disease strategy since its launch six years ago.
We are now calling for a new heart disease strategy for Scotland to be developed, underpinned by the required investment.
Our key priorities
We have worked with more than 70 clinical professionals to draft a plan which has identified three key priorities:• To prevent more people from developing heart and circulatory diseases by tackling risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol
• To ensure everyone has timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care
• Improved use and access to data to understand the scale of services across Scotland
A recent Freedom of Information request by us has highlighted how urgently change is needed, with significant variation in treatment for heart and circulatory diseases across the country.
With an ageing population and more people now living longer with multiple health conditions, there is also a need to look at future care and treatments in the community to enable people to live well for longer.
Calling all political parties
Our Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager in Scotland David McColgan explains: “Heart disease is a major cause of ill health and death in Scotland and yet the Scottish Government’s plans to tackle heart disease haven’t been updated since 2014. During this time, there have been a lot of changes in the health care system, not least due to the Covid-19 pandemic.“Health inequalities also remain. Rates of heart and circulatory diseases in the most deprived areas of Scotland are significantly higher than those in the least deprived areas.
"Dealing with these challenges and years of underinvestment means that new national priorities for addressing heart disease in Scotland are needed. That’s why we have been working with the clinical community and heart patients to identify them.
"As we look forward to the Scottish Elections at Holyrood in May, we are calling on all political parties to commit to work with us to tackle these issues.”
READ OUR SCOTLAND HEART DISEASE STRATEGY