Almost 100,000 more people have died with cardiovascular disease in England than expected in the three years since the pandemic began, a new analysis from the British Heart Foundation shows.
The data up to this month shows an average 500 additional deaths a week involving cardiovascular disease since the pandemic began.
A range of factors are likely to contribute to the figures, which came from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), including Covid-19 itself, extreme pressure on the NHS and disrupted healthcare as well as changing patient behaviour and worsening population health, the charity said.
It noted that the number of patients waiting for time-sensitive cardiac care was at a record high of nearly 390,000 at the end of April in England, while average ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes have consistently been above 30 minutes since the beginning of 2022.
The analysis found 96,540 excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease between March 2020 and May this year – more than any other disease group.
Rates also changed over time with Covid-19 infection driving high numbers of excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease in the first year where more than 50% of the higher than expected deaths occurred.
Excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease then dropped significantly in the second year of the pandemic before increasing again in year three by 13,000.
In the third year of the pandemic, the number of excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease outnumbered the number of deaths where cardiovascular disease was mentioned but where Covid-19 was the underlying cause by around 19,400 deaths, the BHF said.
The charity warned the UK Government must take charge of the increasingly urgent cardiovascular disease crisis.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, BHF chief executive, said: ‘It is deeply troubling that so many more people with cardiovascular disease have lost their lives over the last three years. My heart goes out to every family who has endured the pain of losing a loved one, all too often in distressing circumstances.
‘For years now, it has been clear that we are firmly in the grip of a heart and stroke care emergency. If little changes, we could continue to see a sustained rise in death rates from cardiovascular conditions that undoes decades of scientific progress to reduce the number of people who die of a heart attack or stroke.’
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the BHF and consultant cardiologist, said Covid-19 no longer fully explains the significant numbers of excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease.
‘Other major factors are likely contributing, including the extreme and unrelenting pressure on the NHS over the last few years.
‘Long waits for heart care are dangerous – they put someone at increased risk of avoidable hospital admission, disability due to heart failure and premature death. Yet people are struggling to get potentially lifesaving heart treatment when they need it due to a lack of NHS staff and space, despite cardiovascular disease affecting record numbers of people.’
A Government spokesperson said: ‘We are cutting waiting lists, ambulance response times are falling, staff increasing and we are improving access to blood pressure and health checks.
‘We know there is more to do which is why we are consulting on a Major Conditions Strategy to tackle cardiovascular disease – including strokes and diabetes – and we have opened 108 community diagnostic centres that have delivered over 4 million tests, scans and checks including for those with cardiovascular disease.
‘The Government is also working with NHS England to combat some of the causes of cardiovascular disease, with schemes to support increased physical activity, reduce obesity rates and encourage people to stop smoking.’
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘These tragic findings are the result of 13 years of Conservative understaffing the NHS, and failure to provide more care in the community and prevent disease.
‘The mission of the next Labour government will be to cut deaths from heart disease and stroke by a quarter within a decade. We’ll achieve it by training the staff the NHS needs to treat patients on time again and reforming the service to make it fit for the future.’
People who have had Covid-19 may be at increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications in the following year, according to a study published in 2022.
Compared with the presumed number of lives saved from Covid-19 death, the excess 100,00 cardiovascular deaths is absolutely terrible and this is probably a condemnation of the approach taken to ‘save the hospitals’ (and so many access to hospitals and clinics overrestricted) but not so good for so many of the lives needing to be saved, unless the figures for excess CV deaths will be manipulated to include more cases of Covid-19. Makes you wonder what the excess death figures are for many other specialties additionally.