Stroke

Stroke causes more than 40,000 deaths in the UK each year and there are 235,000 hospital episodes attributed to stroke each year. The British Heart Foundation estimates that 1.3 million people living in the UK have had a stroke – 650,000 men and 650,000 women – and almost half of these people are under the age of 75.

Myocardial infarction

Most deaths from coronary heart disease are caused by a myocardial infarction (MI). There are up to 175,000 myocardial infarctions in the UK each year – which works out at one every three minutes.

Around 110,000 men and 65,000 women in the UK suffer an MI each year. Following an MI, the medications prescribed are an ACE inhibitor, betablocker, statin and antiplatelet treatment.

Reflection exercise

Think about how you and your team can promote healthier lifestyles to patients. How can you and the team increase recruitment to the NHS Health Check? Find out where patients can be signposted to have an NHS Health Check if this service is not provided at your pharmacy.