​Could a single pill prevent thousands of heart attacks and strokes? Experts call for NHS overhaul

More than seven million people are living with cardiovascular disease in the UK, with 100,000 heart attacks and over 100,000 strokes occurring annually. The NHS could prevent thousands of heart attacks and strokes by offering a single polypill to everyone aged 50 and over, according to academics from University College London (UCL).

In an opinion piece published in The BMJ, offering a single ‘polypill’ combining a statin and three blood pressure lowering drugs, could be a ‘flagship strategy’ in Labour’s commitment to preventing disease rather than treating sickness. They said that the programme can use age alone as eligibility for the pills to reduce cardiovascular risk. According to them, this programme could replace the NHS Health Check, a five-yearly assessment for people aged 40 to 74.

According to the authors, the new programme would only require 8% of those aged 50 and over to take up the offer of a polypill to achieve a bigger health benefit than the NHS Health Check.“The NHS Health Check isn’t working very well. Uptake is low, with only four in 10 people taking up the offer of an appointment. Lots of people who would benefit from medication are not prescribed it. What is more, our complex risk prediction tools are not very effective. They do not predict very well who will get a heart attack or stroke. That is because most heart attacks and strokes occur in people with average levels of risk,” co-author Professor Aroon Hingorani (UCL Institute of Health Informatics) said
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