Healthy Hearts Programme in West Yorkshire – April 2019

Pharmacies in West Yorkshire may notice changes in patient prescriptions over the coming months, with an increase in the number of those being prescribed antihypertensives along with changes to existing prescriptions for patients being treated for hypertension. 

The changes are a result of the new West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts programme, which aims to help reduce the impact of heart disease and prevent the number of heart-related illnesses, including heart attacks, stroke and diabetes, every year across the region. 

The implementation resource highlights community pharmacy as the place for patients to be referred to for the New Medicines Service (NMS) and Medicines Use Reviews (MURs) so you will notice more patients asking for your help and advice with their hypertension medication. The Treatment Guidance has more detail on the clinical pathway for patients to help you understand the treatment choice for the patient. 

The programme, which is being delivered by the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network, aims to reduce the number of people affected by heart disease by 10 per cent by 2021, meaning 1,100 fewer heart incidents by 2021. 

To support this, a website has been created that will be continuously developed into a storehouse of trusted information on CVD and its related conditions for both the public and local health care professionals across the region. 

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts will be delivered in three phases. Phase one sees it working to help GPs identify patients with high blood pressure who haven’t yet been diagnosed, as well as helping to optimise the treatment of those already diagnosed through improvements to their individual medication, and providing advice and support on the kinds of lifestyle changes needed to stay healthy. 

Phase 2 - Lipid Management 

Healthy Hearts have recently launched phase two of the Healthy Hearts project.  This phase of the project will identify and treat, at scale, patients whose cholesterol may be better controlled through switching to a high intensity statin and also initiating a statin in those patients at risk of developing CVD.  As a community pharmacy you may see patients initiated on high intensity (dose) statins and this is an opportunity for you to support patients with this change.  Further information and guidance is available: 

• Cholesterol Treatment Guidance and Supporting Information
• Statin Intolerance Guidance
• Two-page summary of the Treatment Guidance and Clinical searches
• Implementation Resource for the Optimisation / Initiation of Statins - please note this implementation resource provides an overview of the project, as well as links to further supporting information, such as; clinical searches, system templates linked to patient letters, FH and specialist lipid pathway etc. 

Healthy Hearts website is a reliable source of information on what CVD is and to find out how to prevent heart disease, including reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The website also provides useful information on hypertension and cholesterol management, tips on a healthy lifestyle, AF and glycaemic control in Type 2 diabetes and signpost to other trusted healthcare websites. 

Please keep your eye out for any further updates on how you can be involved in this project and if you have any questions or queries then please contact Melissa Burnley by email at melissa@cpwy.org.

Last Updated: 13th November 2019