Posted on: 8 May 2025
Teams across West Yorkshire are making real progress in preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD), with new figures showing big improvements in treating high blood pressure and cholesterol. There’s also been a positive shift in reducing health inequalities - making sure people in all communities have better access to care.
One major success is the West Yorkshire cholesterol project, which has been extended with more funding through 2024. Launched in 2022-23, the project was led by Pei Theng Aizlewood, Advanced Pharmacist and a team of cholesterol specialists from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), including Dr Rani Khatib, Consultant Pharmacist in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research. They’ve worked closely with the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership’s CVD team to support GP practices with expert advice, group sessions and one-to-one support - both online and in person.
Even with limited time and resources, the team took an active approach, contacting GP practices and primary care networks (PCNs) directly - especially in areas where people face the greatest challenges to good health. Their support was tailored to the needs of each practice. This work has also been supported by the AF Way project, which helps improve the detection and treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), a common type of irregular heartbeat. The project offers free training, resources and support from expert pharmacists to help more people get life-saving blood-thinning medication known as DOACs.
Alongside this, we have carried out work to improve blood pressure treatment with local NHS teams. This included working with enhanced services in each area and sharing best practice through a network of clinical leads, coordinated by Emily Turner, West Yorkshire’s CVD Prevention Clinical Lead.
A big push to record people’s blood pressure at least once every 12 months has also paid off - combined with community outreach involving local champions and public health teams. As a result, 68,000 more people were added to the primary care register for high blood pressure between September 2023 and September 2024.
Looking ahead, we are getting ready to launch new Healthy Hearts blood pressure treatment guidance this August. This follows feedback and input from over 300 people working across the NHS and community health.
Emily Turner said: “By working together across the health system, targeting support where it’s needed most and sharing what works best, we’re not just treating CVD more effectively - we’re also tackling long-standing health inequalities across our region.”
This joined-up approach is helping to keep heart disease prevention high on the agenda - and is already improving health and wellbeing for people across West Yorkshire.