|
Waitakere City has too many people dying of heart attacks,
and too many (about 50%) who do die with their first attack,
have never been treated (for their heart disease) and many
did not know they had risk factors. That is a shame because
medical science can do a great deal about reducing risk. There
are powerful drugs available to patients at risk, and powerful
reasons why these patients may need to change some things
in their life, like non-smoking and more exercise and a healthy
diet; and people do change when they know their life depends
on it!
HealthWest, the Waitakere PHO is launching a project that
will save lives and improve the quality of life, for those
with, or developing, cardiovascular disease. The project involves
implementing the recently published National Heart Foundation
Guidelines, hence the name GIP (Guideline Implementation Project).
This means making sure that all that are eligible are screened
for risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and then those
needing treatment or on treatment already, are checked to
see that they are getting the best medical science can offer,
i.e. the treatment guidelines are being followed.
Any patient that is not already fully screened will be sent
a letter from their doctor to come and see the practice nurse
for a FREE risk assessment. This will involve a BP and weight
check, and a blood test to measure sugar and lipid levels
(blood fats) and a nice discussion on lifestyle. Those needing
drug treatments or further investigations will see their doctor
and may be able to enrol in the Care Plus programme which
offers low cost monthly practice visits allowing stabilisation
of their medical problem. Free exercise programmes will be
offered by Sports Waitakere and free nutrition advice will
be available.
All 100 GPs and practice nurses in HealthWest's 32 practices
will be involved. At present 145,000 people are enrolled with
GP members of HealthWest, and we will invite all who may not
have a GP in Waitakere to be involved. There will be community
health promotions around the city and the aim will be "to
achieve, in 2 years, 90% of the population of Waitakere City
(182,000) screened for heart disease risk and 90% of those
needing treatment are treated according to the guidelines"
This will make a major reduction in deaths from CVD (health
attacks, strokes mainly) and a great improvement in health
for those with established disease, especially those not already
knowing they have problems.
The project has the tic from the NHF (national heart foundation),
the NZGG (NZ Guidelines Group) and the Stroke Foundation,
and will commence in April this year.
Any enquires please contact:
Lannes Johnson, Medical Director HealthWest
Ph 09 8369948.
|
