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Delivering the NHS Long Term Plan Part 2

Posted: 27th February 2019

In today’s update on our work in Yorkshire and the Humber to support the delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan we’re focusing on the theme of making further progress on care quality and outcomes.

The NHS Long Term Plan aims to improve quality of life and care for everyone. One objective is to prevent up to 150,000 cases of heart attack, stroke and dementia over the next 10 years. A key aspect of achieving this aim is to ensure that people can live healthier lives and that they have early access to diagnostic tests.

Here’s an update on the work we are doing to help identify people with Atrial Fibrillation (AF).

Atrial Fibrillation

As the most common type of irregular heart rhythm, AF is responsible for approximately 20% of all strokes. Survivors must live with the disabling consequences and treating the condition costs the NHS over £2.2 billion each year.

Clare Costello from Healthwatch Kirklees tests Ashley Chamberlain at Mecca BingoMany strokes associated with AF can be avoided. We have estimated that there are 38,736 people in Yorkshire and Humber who have AF but are not on their GP’s AF register. Of the 111,074 people known to have AF, 16,580 are at high risk of stroke and are not being adequately protected.

The Yorkshire & Humber AHSN is leading the transformation of how the prevention of AF related stroke is achieved across the region. We are scaling up and spreading AF related stroke prevention strategies across Yorkshire and Humber, driving improvements in care at pace and scale.

We are capitalising on local exemplars of effectiveness such as the West Yorkshire Healthy Futures Stroke Programme and bringing this together with innovations and best practice from elsewhere. We are providing tailored support to enable GP practices across the region to use Quality Improvement methods to identify and treat patients with AF, making best use of technologies such as mobile ECG devices and computerised case-finding.

From the start of this work in April 2017, our data shows:

  • 1,010 more patients were detected as having AF
  • 1,542 patients were anticoagulated resulting in approximately 62 strokes being prevented

More information:

If you’d like to find out more about our AF programme or you’d like to start working with us in this area please contact:

Jenny Hamer, Cardiac Programme Lead, jenny.hamer@yhahsn.com

For more information about what we do and how we are supporting the delivery of the Long Term Plan please contact:

Kathy Scott, Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer, kathy.scott@yhahsn.com

Additional resources: