Innovative approach to reducing heart attacks and strokes in North East London wins award

The prestigious HSJ awards ceremony last week featured some of the best healthcare collaboration projects across the UK. We are thrilled to have picked up an award for our work with Barts Hospital, Queen Mary University of London Clinical Effectiveness Group and North East London ICB to improve the cardiovascular health of our local population. 

The award-winning work focused specifically on reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in North East London. The work was prompted by research showing around one in ten patients with an abnormal heart rate in Havering, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham were not receiving lifesaving anticoagulant medicines. Hospital doctors, GP surgeries and pharmacists working in primary care came together to address this issue. Our Proactive Care Frameworks were used alongside tools developed by Queen Mary University of London Clinical Effectiveness Group to identify and stratify people most at risk, before they were then treated.

As a result of prioritising people according to their risk, prescription rates for anticoagulant medication given to these patients have risen from 88% to 94%, with the national target being 90%.

“This project shows the power of local collaboration and bringing together both primary and secondary care to provide care much closer to home. To reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke for hundreds of families above the national average, and to do so during the pandemic, is a fantastic feeling.”

Sotiris Antoniou, Head of Pharmacy, St Bartholomew’s Hospital