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The following challenges, barriers and risks have been identified for Newcastle/North of Tyne PCTs: 

Although Newcastle has made progress in closing the gap with England in relation to cardiovascular disease mortality, the city is unlikely to meet the inequalities target set by government, if past trends continue. 

Whilst the quality of care provided in relation to the secondary prevention of CHD by Newcastle practices overall is above the national average, significant variation exists between practices.

Potential to improve efficiency

A number of activities are concomitantly being implemented to achieve the overall target of reducing the mortality rates from CVD. In terms of primary prevention of CVD these relate to implementing the NHS health checks progamme in NoT and control of BP in CHD patients (CHD-6). The vision for the vascular risk programme is to have systematic risk identification, measurement and management within primary care and the community, commission support/referral services, and develop community based vascular risk reduction programmes.

Despite CVD data made available from a number of disparate sources there are gaps in current CVD knowledge. These relate to: 

The core strategy that relates to cardiovascular disease management is the National Service Framework (NSF) published in 2000. As a result of the implementation of the NSF we already have had a significant improvement – a 40% reduction in cardiovascular deaths in people under 75 since 1996.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the UK's biggest killer, causing more than 200,000 deaths per year, representing one in three deaths. The UK has one of the highest rates of CVD in Europe. CVD is an overarching term for coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and peripheral vascular disease (PVD) group of diseases. Evidence from literature suggests it is strongly linked to overweight, obesity, diabetes, and is more prevalent in lower socio-economic and ethnic minority groups.