On this page
How we’re advocating on behalf of patients and the public
How we’ve heard from you
Since the beginning of the outbreak, we’ve put patient support and information at the centre of our work. We've extended the hours on our Heart Helpline and brought in additional staff with cardiac expertise to answer your questions.
We’ve also been working hard to provide information on our website about coronavirus for people who have heart and circulatory conditions, with webpages updated frequently. We’ve tailored this information to respond to what callers to our helpline have been asking about as well as gathering feedback from surveys and focus groups with people living with heart and circulatory conditions.
This has helped us understand how people with heart and circulatory diseases are feeling, their concerns and the challenges they are facing. We’ve used this insight, as well as healthcare data, to help us to highlight their needs when speaking to the Government and health service.
Delayed treatment
During the Covid-19 pandemic, services have adapted in order to cope with increased demand. However, this has made it more difficult for people living with long-term conditions, such as heart and circulatory diseases, to access the treatment and care they need.
In May, we carried out a survey of people living with heart and circulatory diseases, which found that nearly half of heart patients found it harder to get medical treatment during the lockdown in spring 2020.
Since then, we have seen an impact on all parts of the heart and circulatory disease pathway, including deferral of diagnoses and therapeutic interventions and reduced access to specialist care in the community and identification and management of risk factors, including high blood pressure.
Difficulties in accessing vital treatment and care could have a damaging impact on people’s health or even lead to an increase in deaths, as well as put more pressure on the NHS if heart and circulatory patients become more unwell while waiting for hospital investigations and treatment. Access to care has also varied significantly across the country, which could further exacerbate health inequalities.
Projections published by the BHF in August 2021 predict that the number of people anxiously waiting for heart care and diagnosis could peak at around 550,385 in January 2024 if the NHS in England does not receive the investment it needs to address the backlog of care. It could take up to five years for cardiac waiting lists in England to recover to pre-pandemic levels in this scenario.
To ensure this modelling does not become reality, our Untold Heart break campaign is highlighting the huge disruption to cardiovascular care caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and what this has meant for people living with heart and circulatory diseases. We’re calling on the UK Government to deliver a clear national cardiovascular strategy to address the backlog of care while building a stronger, more resilient cardiovascular health system backed up with targeted funding, a comprehensive workforce strategy and leadership that prioritises cardiovascular care at all levels of the health system.
How we’re working on restoring services
We’re calling on the Government and the NHS to urgently restore vital services and increase capacity in secondary care to address the backlog of heart patients requiring treatment. We also want to see the return of rehabilitation and specialist cardiac services in the community prioritised.
We’re working with professional bodies, such as the British Society of Heart Failure, to help define minimum standards of care for patients across the UK. And we’re assisting the delivery of alternative ways of supporting people in hypertension management, cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure services by sharing best practice for remotely using telephone or digital services amongst healthcare professionals.
In May 2020, we submitted evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee, based on patient insight and information from across the health and care system.
Our submission to the Health and Social Care Committee
And in November, we submitted evidence to the APPG on Coronavirus setting out the impact the pandemic has had on people with heart and circulatory conditions.
As the pandemic progresses, we'll continue to play a significant role in delivering the ambitions of the long-term plan, working in partnership with NHS England.
How we addressed falling numbers of people presenting to A&E
Hospital data from across England in April 2020 showed that the number of people seen in hospital with a suspected heart attack had halved since the beginning of March.
We’ve been working closely with the Government and NHS England on their public awareness campaign ‘Help Us Help You’, encouraging people to attend A&E in emergencies. The latest data for heart attacks in England has shown that the number of A&E attendances have returned to levels similar to those before the pandemic began and show the beginnings of an upward trend above that baseline.
Find out why the NHS is not too busy to save your life.
How we’re ensuring our life saving research continues
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to our research, with clinical research staff being redeployed to support NHS frontline services and clinical trials paused until the appropriate mechanisms can be continued. However, the burden of heart and circulatory disease does not stop for a pandemic.
To ensure patients still see the benefits of this research, we have committed to supporting current projects through to successful completion and we are continuing to pay our researchers’ salaries even when research has been paused. We are also offering extensions of up to six months to PhD students in their penultimate year, and up to three months to those in their final year of study to support them through this challenging time.
Although we are dedicated to supporting our researchers and their life saving work in any way we can, we cannot do it alone. We estimate that investment in new research is likely to halve this year from around £100 million to around £50 million. Such a sharp fall in income could have a devastating impact on UK cardiovascular research, the careers of bright young scientists, and advances towards better treatments and cures for people with heart and circulatory diseases.
Our Life Sciences Charity Partnership Fund
This is why we have joined the Association of Medical Research Charities and 151 of its members in urging the Government to establish a vital Life Sciences-Charity Partnership Fund. This co-investment scheme between Government and charity funders would allow medical research charities to effectively scale back up to pre-Covid-19 funding levels and increase contributions to UK R&D thereafter. Many thanks to everyone who supported out call by emailing their MP to urge the Government to protect charity-funded medical research in the Spending Review.
Details of the Spending Review – where the Chancellor allocates funding to Government departments for 2021/22 – were announced on Wednesday 25 November. The Chancellor committed £14.6 billion to UK R&D, including £11.1 billion to the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which funds most Government research - a rise of £740 million compared to this year. There was also a multi-year commitment to research, with UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) promised substantial budget increases until 2023/24.
Whether charity-funded research will benefit from this welcome uplift in funding remains unclear. However, the challenges that we, and other charity research funders, are facing have not gone away. We are therefore continuing to engage with Government and urging them to invest in charity-funded research.
Want to find out more? Read our reaction to the Spending Review announcement or take a look at our influencing activity during Covid-19.
How we're asking urgent research questions on Covid-19 and cardiovascular health
Pre-existing heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors have emerged as some of the most common reasons for severe complications from Covid-19.
This highlighted an urgent need to better understand the virus, and in response we quickly pivoted to help contribute to the Covid-19 research effort in various ways, including through our partnership with the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).
Go to the Information for Researchers section to learn about our covid-19 related research.
How we’re working with Government to support the charity sector
Like many other charities, the BHF’s ability to raise vital funds for life saving medical research has been significantly impacted during the pandemic.
Back in March, we supported the NCVO 'Every Day Counts campaign' urging Government for a 'stabilisation fund' for the charity sector. We continue to push for adequate support for the sector, particularly for our extensive retail network.
Read the latest updates on our shops.
How we’re helping to create a healthier nation post-Covid-19
The coronavirus crisis has changed a lot about the world around us, especially how many of us travel, shop and eat, and has made many of us more aware of our health and well being. We are working to make sure that everyone is supported to have better health and to live in a healthier environment.
Emerging evidence has found a link between obesity and worse outcomes from Covid-19. As a member of the Obesity Health Alliance, we have long been calling for changes in our environment that help everyone to make healthier choices about the food they eat. We were pleased to see the Government's new obesity strategy published in July, and we will be working with our partners and Government to ensure that all of the measures announced, including a 9pm watershed for junk food marketing and a ban on promotions of foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), are implemented fully and as soon as possible, to have the best effect on our health.
A consequence of changes in the way we travel has been a drop in some types of air pollution in cities across the world. As we consider a future after the pandemic, we must look to create a healthier, greener society, including setting stricter targets for harmful pollutants like PM2.5, which is shown to have a negative impact on cardiovascular health.
Read our blog on how we can keep a lockdown on toxic air.
For updates on all of our work, follow @BHFPolicy on Twitter.