UK
Clinical Pharmacy
Association
UK
Clinical Pharmacy
Association
The national CVDPREVENT audit shows that many people with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are not on optimal treatment and that there are significant inequalities between different demographic groups. Urgent action from the pharmacy profession to optimise prescribing is required to redress the current situation and save lives.
CVDPREVENT is a national primary care audit that automatically extracts routinely held GP data about the prevention of cardiovascular disease in England. In the UK, AF, BP and raised cholesterol levels are leading causes of heart attack and stroke. These common conditions account for a quarter of premature deaths and 25% of the life expectancy gap between the most affluent and most deprived communities.
Treatments to reduce stroke risk in AF, and lower BP and cholesterol are highly effective at preventing these life-changing events, reducing demand on hospital services, and reducing health and social care costs. Despite this, CVDPREVENT data shows that many people with CVD risk factors are not on optimal treatment and that there are significant inequalities between different demographic groups. Urgent medicines optimisation measures are required to redress the current situation and save lives.
Data from across 98% of English GPs were extracted in Mar 2024 (12.7 million patients were diagnosed with CVD or one of the high-risk conditions), showing performance across a wide range of CVD indicators. Improvements were seen in the management of many high-risk conditions when compared to the previous year (Table 1).
| Condition | Indicator | March 2023 (%) | March 2024 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atrial Fibrillation (AF) | People at high risk of stroke from AF treated with oral anticoagulants | 90.4 | 91.5 |
| Blood pressure (BP) | People treated to age- appropriate targets | 68.2 | 70.9 |
| Cholesterol in people with pre-existing CVD | People prescribed lipid-lowering therapy | 82.2 | 85.1 |
| Cholesterol in people without pre-existing CVD | People prescribed lipid-lowering therapy | 60 | 62.1 |
An additional 346,000 people were diagnosed with hypertension between March 2023 and March 2024. Variation between the best and worst performing healthcare systems for the hypertension treated to target indicator narrowed between March 2021 (range 39-52%) and March 2024 (range 66-74%).
Other findings highlight health inequalities. For instance, Black and mixed ethnic groups were least likely to be prescribed appropriate drug therapy, receive regular monitoring, or be treated to target across multiple conditions and indicators. For example, . 80% of patients with CVD in the Black ethnic group were prescribed lipid-lowering therapy (LLT) compared to 90% in the Asian ethnic group in March 2024.
CVDPREVENT quality improvement data packs (QIDPs) are produced for each integrated care board (ICB) on a quarterly basis. These provide data and practical actions to improve achievement in single risk factors, reduce variation between practices, and facilitate peer support within the system.
Access your local ICB QIDP here.
The CVDPREVENT team offer free training on how to facilitate educational outreach (EO) meetings in GP practices and how to use the QIDPs. EO meetings are structured events, usually face-to-face, where individuals or groups receive information, guidance, and potentially training on a specific therapeutic topic. CVDPREVENT EO meetings in primary care are an evidence-based way of affecting behaviour change in a complex area, such as prescribing for CVD prevention.
Train the Trainer consists of two one-hour online training sessions (via MS Teams). In the first session, we talk through the CVDPREVENT data and improvement tool, and show how you can access CVD prevention data for your local area and for specific practices. Over the following week, you can look at your key areas for improvement. In the second session, we illustrate how you might facilitate an EO session in a practice, explaining how to present the data, engage in a conversation about how to improve, and then create an action plan.
Robust, timely, and regular primary care data collection and reporting is essential to understanding progress towards CVD prevention ambitions, and therefore the prevention of death and disability.
Reporting of CVDPREVENT data has highlighted variation between local areas as well as demographic groups, which has been utilised locally in QI approaches and influencing national policy. The pharmacy profession is ideally placed to optimise prescribing and is instrumental in making meaningful change in CVD prevention.
The UKCPA cardiovascular pharmacy community is one of our specialist communities, providing you with access to dedicated resources and expert training.
By joining UKCPA you will have access to the experts in this area of practice and the opportunity to keep up to date with the latest CVD prevention plans.
Join UKCPA for less than £3 a week and access all our communities, education and resources.
