Living in a deprived community can greatly reduce a person’s life expectancy by increasing the likelihood that they will have cardiovascular disease (CVD) – this includes a heart attack or stroke or related illnesses.

In some instances people living in these communities die several years earlier than someone living elsewhere.

The Government wants to tackle this inequality as outlined in the Department of Health's The NHS in England: Operating Framework 2008-09.

The Improvement Foundation has been commissioned by the Department of Health to work with nine PCTs in 27 specific communities covering a total of around 300,000 people. A second wave of this work has recently commenced.

The aim is to improve the number of people seeking advice, and encourage and support them to seek treatment earlier. As part of this, the teams identify and deliver locally-tailored ways of raising awareness about the risk factors and the benefits of earlier diagnosis.

The intended outcomes of the programme are to raise people’s awareness about CVD and to signpost them into the relevant and appropriate support.

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Who is involved

The PCTs involved are:

• South Tyneside in Northern England
• Barnsley in Yorkshire
• Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale and Blackpool in North West England
• Nottingham in the East Midlands
• Sandwell in the West Midlands
• Lewisham and Greenwich in London.

There are three community teams in each PCT, consisting of people from the local community who have volunteered to be involved with relevant professionals. These vary from area to area but include public and voluntary organisations as well as local businesses such as pharmacies.

What we are doing

The healthy communities collaborative method views local people as the key to understanding how their communities work. It brings together local people with professionals to work in close partnership to achieve their goals.

There are two strands to the CVD programme:

• Working with GPs to improve early diagnosis in primary care and referral for investigation in accordance with best clinical practice. Information is submitted by each participating GP practice on a monthly basis to help them to track their progress in monitoring and treating more people. The local project manager and team members work together with the practices to make any improvements that are required
• Work in the local communities to help educate and raise awareness of the symptoms of CVD, and when people should get in touch with their GP. The teams test ways of delivering health-related information in an understandable and acceptable way, to encourage people to present to their GP earlier. Teams gather information about their community to better understand the people living there and the level of service provision.

In order to share and increase learning all 27 teams will meet together three times during the programme. 

Each site is supported by an assistant director from the Improvement Foundation and an on-site project manager.

The programme is overseen by a national Programme Board which includes members from the Department of Health, the Treasury and the Local Government Association.