Waiting lists for heart procedures and heart operations are now some 25% longer than they were before the pandemic began, an analysis of NHS England figures has shown.
The data-crunching by the charity the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has suggested the number of people on cardiac waiting lists grew to 291,000 at the end of December 2021 in England.
The BHF has been consistently warning about lengthening waiting lists, even for time-critical elective procedures, as the NHS has grappled to cope with the pressures of the pandemic.
For occupational health practitioners and employers, the impact of this can mean workers being stuck at home unable to work, or having to work in adjusted roles or duties while they wait for their procedure to happen.
There can also be a knock-on impact if the individual is in pain, or their health is deteriorating or if there begin to be mental ill health consequences, perhaps anxiety or fear, that build up over time.
A total of 3,907 people had been waiting more than a year in December 2021, the BHF said,140 times higher than before the pandemic began when just 28 people were waiting this long.
Nearly 100 people had been waiting more than two years, and 29% of people on waiting lists for potentially lifesaving heart care in England have been waiting over four months (or 18 weeks).
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Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, BHF associate medical director and a consultant cardiologist, said: “Behind these record numbers are hundreds of thousands of real people at higher risk of avoidable heart attacks, disabling heart failure, or even premature death as they face dangerous delays for potentially live saving heart care.”
Dr Babu-Narayan also highlighted the ‘delivery plan’ for tackling the elective backlog unveiled by the NHS and Department of Health and Social Care last week.
The plan “didn’t tell us what will happen to the vast and ever-increasing number of heart patients waiting for time-critical cardiac care”, she pointed out.
“We must urgently see a specific plan for cardiovascular care recovery that commits to addressing the shortage of heart disease doctors, nurses and physiologists,” Dr Babu-Narayan added.
Separately, the BHF in Wales has highlighted a “heart attack gender gap” in the country.
The charity has warned that Wales has the second highest coronary heart disease female death rate of the UK’s four nations, with around 1,300 women dying every year – double the number of deaths caused by breast cancer.
Its research has suggested the deaths of at least 8,000 women could have been prevented through equitable cardiac treatment over a ten-year period in England and Wales.
A survey in 2021 of 1,000 people in Wales showed women were not seen as being at risk of heart disease by the Welsh public, with 65% of people in Wales unable to identify heart disease as one of the leading causes of death for women.
Each year, around 1,700 women are admitted to hospitals in Wales due to a heart attack.
Yet more than a third of women in Wales also did not feel confident in recognising the symptoms of a heart attack and only 7% feel very confident, it added.
NHS England is currently running a campaign to raise awareness of the common early symptoms of a heart attack, with its polling suggesting fewer than half of people would dial 999 if they or a loved one experienced lesser known symptoms of heart attacks.
The campaign, which runs until the end of March, advises people to dial 999 if they experience symptoms including sweating, uneasiness and chest tightness.
While 70% of those surveyed understood that pain in the chest was a possible symptom of a heart attack, just 41% knew sweating was also a potential symptom and only 27% understood that feeling weak, lightheaded or a feeling of general unease could also be symptoms.
