The IPPR think tank has warned the government that action is needed now to avoid 12,000 extra heart attacks and strokes due to pandemic care disruption.
Research by IPPR and the CF healthcare analytics company found that there have been 470,000 fewer new prescriptions of preventative cardiovascular medications during the pandemic. This will cause an estimated 12,000 extra cases of heart attack and stroke in England, in the next five years, without bold government intervention.
The new analysis, Without Skipping a Beat, also shows: an estimated 23,000 missed diagnoses of heart failure during the pandemic; referrals to cardiovascular and diabetes specialists remain a quarter below expected levels; and a 44 per cent drop in echocardiograms, a key diagnostic scan for long-term heart disease, compared to 2019.
The authors urge the government to act with bold health policy to ‘build back better’ in England, and avoid these severe consequences. Among the steps the government should take are: find and diagnose patients who have been missed by increasing the number of echocardiogram tests carried out in the community; create a public health cabinet committee, to help sequence and co-ordinate cross-government policies, ensuring they improve health and reduce inequalities; and upgrade the NHS’s digital infrastructure to ensure the remote revolution in healthcare can flourish and does not come with a trade-off to quality of care.
Dr Parth Patel, IPPR Research Fellow and lead author of the paper, said: “Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are diagnosed with heart disease. The good news is that we have effective medications that can really slow down the deterioration of such disease and prevent future heart attacks and strokes.
"The bad news is the pandemic means almost half a million chances to prevent have been missed. This is really alarming. It pits us in a race against time to avoid thousands of deaths in the coming years that would be entirely attributable to the pandemic’s disruptions to normal healthcare services. Crucially, these deaths are not inevitable - but avoiding them relies on bold policy now. It is time for the government to match its ‘build back better’ rhetoric with urgent action.”
