Adrian Sanders joins battle to tackle the UK’s biggest killer

Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay, has this week pledged his support to tackle heart and circulatory disease – the UK’s biggest killer.

Mr. Sanders pledged his support as heart patients, carers, and medics descended on the Houses of Parliament demanding a renewed commitment from all political parties to tackle heart and circulatory disease – the UK’s biggest killer – during the next decade.

Almost one hundred British Heart Foundation supporters lobbied their local MPs with calls for a planned and published approach to protect the heart health of the nation. They were backed by a 150,000 signature petition from people calling for a new heart plan.

Mr Sanders said:

“Heart and circulatory disease will affect almost every family at some stage in their lives. That’s why I’m pledging my support to tackle heart and circulatory disease at the next general election and beyond.”

The British Heart Foundation wants to see:

• A clear target to reduce heart and circulatory disease in England to one of the lowest in Western Europe by 2020.
• A single front of pack food labelling scheme to enable shoppers to make healthy food choices easily.
• Cardiac rehabilitation for every patient who is suitable and wishes to take part in this life saving treatment.
• Combat and tackle health inequalities by introducing health equality impact assessments for all new policies and services.

While the number of people dying from cardiovascular disease has fallen, the UK still lags behind other western countries.

Peter Hollins, Chief Executive at the BHF said:

“There has been tremendous progress over the last ten years – but heart disease is responsible for a third of all deaths in the UK. We need to go further and faster to beat this.

“Patients still don’t receive life saving treatments like cardiac rehabilitation – if this were a pill it would have been on the NHS years ago. Heart and circulatory disease remains disproportionately high amongst people living in disadvantaged communities. We need a Government that is willing to tackle the UK’s biggest killer head on with a new heart plan to ensure patients are given the heart health care they deserve.”

The BHF is a member of the Cardio & Vascular Coalition (CVC), a group of 41 voluntary organisations including Diabetes UK, the Stroke Association and Kidney Research UK who are calling on the next Government to address gaps in treatment provision and deal with inequalities in order to reduce premature deaths from cardiovascular disease.