Heart in hands image

Leaders, clinicians and MPs launch heart valve disease fast track

Over 1.5 million people in the UK are effected by aortic stenosis each year, if left untreated the disease is fatal. A form of heart valve disease aortic stenosis is a growing problem and kills up to 450 people a year.

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) has been introduced as an alternative therapy to replace damaged aortic valves, in patients considered high risk for traditional open-heart surgery.

The procedure is less invasive and patients can be discharged from hospital in a short period, allowing them to return to normal life whilst also saving hospital resources.

Despite the benefits of TAVI for high-risk patients, patient access to this procedure is limited in the UK with profound geographical inequity and long waiting lists, made worse by the Covid-19 Pandemic which has resulted in a significant decline of all major cardiac procedural activity across England.

VfT infographic image

Within the UK the inequalities are substantial; in 39 areas across the UK fewer than 50 TAVIs per million were performed compared to a national average of 78 TAVI per million in the whole of the UK and an average of 141 per million across Europe.

Furthermore, among 23 centres, the average wait for treatment was over 20 weeks, leading to hundreds of avoidable deaths as well as unnecessary emergency hospital admissions.

The Valve for Life Initiative was created to combat this. The initiative has four main goals: to raise awareness of valvular heart disease, facilitate access to new therapies such as TAVI, increase educational standards and reduce obstacles to therapy and discrimination in access to care.

Launched December 8, a group consisting of the new APPG on Heart Valve Disease, MPs, clinicians and charity leaders are passionately working together to increase the use of TAVI across the country and to fight geographic inequalities.

The launch was a massive success with policy-makers, healthcare professionals and prominent patient advocates from the heart valve disease space discussing the urgent need to establish a fast-track TAVI pathway for UK heart valve disease patients to tackle these challenges. All in attendance look forward to holding further engagement events and widening stakeholder involvement.

Speaking on the success of the event, Steve McCabe MP, said: “I am very proud to chair the APPG on Heart Valve Disease and to support the launch of the Valve for Life initiative. Collectively, campaigning to ensure that more patients get access to TAVI will mean better outcomes for patients and less pressure on hospital resources.

"We are campaigning for a fast-track pathway akin to that used in oncology and we have clinical, parliamentarian and patient group support for change. From today’s meeting, I am feeling confident that we can make headway with making this a reality within our NHS by 2022.”

Jan/Feb

NHE January/February 2024

Boosting NHS productivity demands a healthy dose of realism

Dive into our latest edition for January/February!

Videos...

View all videos
Online Conference

Presenting

2024 Online Conferences

In partnership with our community of health sector leaders responsible for delivering the UK's health strategy across the NHS and the wider health sector, we’ve devised a collaborative calendar of conferences and events for industry leaders to listen, learn and collaborate through engaging and immersive conversation. 

All our conferences are CPD accredited, which means you can gain points to advance your career by attending our online conferences. Also, the contents are available on demand so you can re-watch at your convenience.

National Health Executive Podcast

Ep 41. The truth about drones in the NHS

In episode 41 of the National Health Executive podcast, we were joined by Dr Angela Smith, research fellow at Bournemouth University, and Andy Oakey, research fellow at the University of Southampton, to discuss the viability of drones within the NHS transport system.

More articles...

View all