GPs across Scotland are set to deliver a new cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention scheme, focused on identifying those patients at risk of a range of conditions and intervening early.

In a letter to Scotland’s health board chief executives, the Scottish government has laid out details of a new service to help reduce avoidable deaths from conditions like heart disease and stroke by 20% over the next 20 years.

As part of the government’s CVD Risk Factors Programme, GPs will work to find people unaware they are at a higher risk of the conditions, intervene early and provide care to reduce patients’ risk.

The letter states that the government recognises delivery of the new enhanced service must be done in ‘innovative ways’ to reach people who may be disengaged with healthcare services, highlighting the role of group consultations and community outreach.

Deputy chair of BMA Scottish general practitioners committee Dr Al Miles told healthandcare.scot the initiative can play an important role in preventative care:

“BMA Scotland has worked closely with the Scottish government on this new scheme which aims to identify patients at risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and enable early intervention to reduce their risk of developing CVD.

“This initiative has the potential to demonstrate how general practice can offer solutions to so many of the challenges the NHS faces, including by pursuing a preventative health agenda and reducing the long-term burden on secondary care.”

Enhanced services enable health boards and government to commission services directly from GPs which are not already in their NHS contract but are highly-valued and have the potential to transform healthcare.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray first announced plans for the CVD service in January, alongside a host of other measures to shift more care into the community.

Despite being the second most common cause of death in Scotland, many patients are unaware of treatable risk factors of CVD, including high blood pressure, obesity and smoking.

The new CVD prevention programme is set to launch across Scotland’s GP practices on 8 May 2025.

It will see patients aged 35-60 who have not received CVD health checks in the last three years, be offered a ‘full suite’ of checks, covering blood pressure, weight/BMI, smoking status and blood sugar and lipid assessments.

Patients found to have a higher risk will be offered support and a follow-up appointment after six months..

As mortality from CVD is five times higher in Scotland’s most deprived areas than its least deprived areas, patients from more deprived areas will be prioritised, with the government’s letter stating the target population for this service is characterised by “missingness”.

This follows government support to extend a scheme for GPs to help ‘lost’ patients, to reduce health inequalities through improved staff training and patient outreach.

GP practices which sign up to deliver the enhanced CVD service will receive additional payments to support planning and for each patient who receives the full bundle of checks.

BMA’s Dr Miles emphasised that GPs are “under enormous pressure and struggling to meet demand” and told healthandcare.scot that ensuring general practice is “properly resourced” will be key to the success of the scheme:

“The capacity to take on enhanced services depends on general practice having sufficient direct investment into core funding, which has been lacking for at least 15 years.

“We are hopeful that most practices will have just about enough capacity to deliver this CVD enhanced service, but general practice needs better direct core investment if we are to realise more of these opportunities, and enable us to focus on meeting the needs of our local communities. 

“General practice can offer so much to the health and wellbeing of Scotland and we hope this scheme will highlight just how much more could be achieved if GPs are properly resourced.”

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