Science & Technology Covid: Half a million people missed out on heart drugs

DURING the pandemic, nearly half a million people in the UK missed out on starting medication to help prevent heart attacks and strokes, a new study suggests.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) team looked at prescribing data for the first 18 months after Covid hit.

Some 491,000 people27,000 a month - appear to have missed out on blood pressure pills.

And 316,000 did not get treatment to lower their cholesterol.

The team says more needs to be done to make sure that anyone who needs treatment gets it.

During the pandemic, normal NHS services were severely disrupted.

For example, there was a reduction in diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of high blood pressure, and other heart and circulation disease risk factors.

Although the NHS took action, including providing more than 220,000 blood pressure monitors for people to use at home, data shows two million fewer people in England were recorded as having controlled hypertension in 2021 compared to the previous year.