The British Heart Foundation has warned that thousands of people with heart problems could die over the next few years due to increasingly long delays in NHS care.
The BHF fears that those needing treatment for heart attacks and stroke, diagnostic tests and potentially life-saving surgery could lose their lives while they wait. The first year of Covid-19 brought 5,800 “excess” deaths from heart and circulatory conditions after many NHS services were suspended as hospitals focused on the pandemic. The BHF voiced alarm on Monday that long waits to receive hospital care could see that death toll rise even higher.
Full story in The Guardian, 9 August 2021