Cardiovascular
Overview
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains one of the leading causes of ill health and premature death in England. Over 6.4 million people live with heart and circulatory conditions, and CVD accounts for around 140,000 deaths each year.
The economic impact is also significant, with around £10 billion spent annually on healthcare and a wider cost of £24 billion through lost productivity, disability and long-term care.
Preventing CVD is a key priority within the NHS Long Term Plan, with a focus on reducing premature deaths from heart disease and stroke. This requires earlier identification and management of risk factors, particularly for people living with multiple conditions such as chronic kidney disease, hypertension, high cholesterol and atrial fibrillation.
We work with partners across south London to support earlier detection, improve management of cardiovascular risk, and enable the adoption of innovation to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities.
Together, these efforts help ensure people receive timely, personalised and effective care, preventing avoidable events and improving long term health.
Areas of expertise
- Delivering workforce development programmes, including the CPD-accredited Cardiovascular Renal Metabolic (CVRM) Fellowship
- Supporting pathway redesign and system transformation across primary and secondary care
- Project and programme management
- Delivering structured and evidence-based improvement programmes
- Enabling digital innovation and data-driven approaches, including remote monitoring and population health analytics
- Embedding public and patient involvement to inform service design and improvement
Atrial fibrillation detection in community pharmacies across south west London
The challenge
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is often intermittent or asymptomatic, meaning many people remain undiagnosed until serious complications occur. Earlier detection is critical to reduce the risk of stroke and other outcomes, but opportunities to identify AF in routine care are limited. Expanding detection into accessible community settings, such as pharmacies, offers a way to reach more people at risk.
Solution
We supported South West London ICB to implement an innovative AF detection pathway in community pharmacies. This included site recruitment, pharmacist training, programme management and evaluation. Pharmacists used the FibriCheck app to identify people at higher risk and support early detection.
Outcomes
- Increased access to AF detection in community settings
- Strengthened the role of pharmacists in cardiovascular prevention
- Generated system-wide learning to inform future AF pathways
- A full evaluation is planned for 2027
South East London Healthy Hearts Pathway
The challenge
Many people in south east London are living with cardiovascular conditions or unmanaged risk factors. Around 130,000 residents have heart and circulatory disease, and a further 113,000 have blood pressure above target.
Under-diagnosis and under-treatment disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities, and fragmented care can delay optimisation of conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and high cholesterol. This leads to avoidable complications and poorer outcomes.
Solution
Building on previous work in CKD point-of-care testing, we co-designed a multi-condition Healthy Hearts Pathway to support faster optimisation of cardiovascular renal metabolic risk factors.
The pathway uses proactive clinical contacts and Lean Six Sigma methodology to streamline care. It incorporates innovations such as point-of-care testing and is being implemented across multiple sites, supported by training, shared resources and partnership working across the system.
Outcomes
- Faster optimisation of cardiovascular risk factors
- Fewer appointments required through more coordinated care
- An estimated £10 million system-wide benefit over five years
- Initial sites launching, with wider rollout planned across 2026–27
Get in touch
If you are looking to improve cardiovascular pathways, support earlier detection and management of risk factors, or scale innovation across your system, we can support you to design and implement effective solutions.
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