BHF comment
Veteran pays for heart surgery with pension to avoid NHS delays
A Royal Navy veteran who paid over £25,000 for heart surgery to avoid NHS delays is supporting our campaign to fix an “unprecedented crisis” in cardiovascular care.
Photo: ABNM Photography
Ex-weapons engineer Neil Wogan, 52, from Wigan, first went to the GP in May 2023 as he had a feeling of tight pressure in his chest. He had an ECG within a few weeks, but he didn’t find out if it had identified a problem, and he had to wait four months to see a cardiologist.
Before this happened, Neil’s symptoms became so painful that in July 2023, he had to go to A&E and was admitted to hospital for nearly a week. Neil, a Police Community Support Officer, was diagnosed with heart valve disease and told he urgently needed open heart surgery to replace his failing aortic valve with a mechanical one.
However, he was told that he would be lucky to get the operation before Christmas – a further four months later – due to the size of the heart care waiting list.
Neil shared his story as us and over 40 other leading organisations concerned about waiting lists have joined forces to call for a National Cardiovascular Disease Plan from Government in a consensus statement published today.
Latest figures show the cardiovascular care waiting list in England is at a near-record high of over 420,000. Around 40 per cent of those waiting for time-sensitive heart care are waiting longer than the target treatment time of 18 weeks from referral, with around 9,000 waiting over a year.
'A ticking time bomb'
Neil decided to have his operation privately, drawing money from his personal pension fund. His surgery was then scheduled for just a few weeks later in mid-September.
Neil said: “Before the surgery, I felt like a ticking time bomb, and that at any moment, my heart could fail. Every night I went to sleep thinking I might never wake up. For nearly 30 years, I’ve served my country: in the Navy, for my local council, and for the police. I've helped a lot of people, so I honestly feel really let down by the system.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to go private as I’ll now have to retire later than I’d planned. But I felt forced to, I was desperate. I didn’t know when I’d get a date for my heart surgery, or if it would be cancelled when I did. I had been on sick leave by that point for months and it was taking a huge mental and physical toll on me and my family.”
Since 2019, the rate of people dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease has risen to the highest level in over a decade. Latest figures show that an average of 750 people a week aged 75 or under died from cardiovascular disease in England in 2023.
Our modelling suggests there could be 11,000 more premature deaths in 2035 in England alone, based on current trends. We say a bold package of measures is necessary to help prevent this.
'Unprecedented crisis'
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, our Chief Executive, said: “There’s an unprecedented crisis in heart and stroke care. Neil’s story is a harsh and heartbreaking reminder that behind the huge waiting list numbers, far too many people are suffering physically and emotionally.
“Fixing this needs a National Cardiovascular Disease Plan to get the nation’s heart health back on track and save thousands of lives.”
Cardiovascular disease causes a quarter of all deaths in the UK, and its healthcare costs are an estimated £12 billion a year. Today’s consensus statement says this is a “major factor in the UK’s faltering economic performance,” and therefore tackling cardiovascular disease is key to boosting growth.
To fix the crisis in cardiovascular care, we want a National Cardiovascular Disease Plan that could better prevent heart disease and stroke, ensure people get treatment in time, and supercharge cardiovascular research.
We warn that such a plan “cannot be put off any longer”. They argue cardiovascular waiting lists are at near-record levels in England, heart failure cases are expected to double by 2040, and there is a projected shortfall for CVD research funding of over a quarter of a billion pounds over the next decade.
A National Cardiovascular Disease Plan is needed alongside the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for reforming health and care, due to be published later this year.