Highly Commended
HEART UK’s ‘Healthy Heart’ Testing Event – Launching HEART UK’s Cholesterol Plan for Government
Summary of work
Over the past ten years, considerable progress has been made in the management and treatment of CVD. More recently, however, there is a fear that these improvements have been met by a misguided belief that ‘the job is done’. There are still around 155,000 deaths per year from heart and circulatory disease in the UK, accounting for more than a quarter of all deaths and costs the UK economy around £19 billion a year.
To address this HEART UK developed a Cholesterol Plan for Government outlining four key recommendations to influence policy around cardiovascular disease (CVD) and encourage greater prioritisation of CVD across the healthcare system.
This Plan for Government was launched in Parliament to a political audience to apply maximum political pressure on Government and the NHS to take more concerted action on the management of cholesterol and implement the recommendations set out by HEART UK. An event platform was the most effective way for a small charity like HEART UK to engage with large numbers of parliamentarians. The event saw HEART UK engage with a total of 103 parliamentarians on the day.
Judges’ comments
Here we saw great engagement, with clear evidence of the direct impact of cholestorel testing on the event’s audience. This led to a bigger change in policy and may well lead to mainingful changes to the patient.
