BRADFORD’S innovative Healthy Hearts campaign has been shortlisted for a national award.

Hot on the heels of winning two cardiovascular team honours at this year's General Practice Awards, the professionals behind the Healthy Hearts project from NHS Bradford Districts Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are up for yet another accolade in the clinical leadership section of the British Medical Journal Awards 2016.

They will now have to wait until May to see if they can add that title to their winning list.

Dr Chris Harris, long-term conditions lead at the CCG, said: “Being shortlisted for another national award is further recognition for all the hard work and dedication that the Bradford’s Healthy Hearts team has put into making it such a success.

“Working closely with hospital consultants and other health professionals, GPs in Bradford are pulling out all the stops to reduce the number of people suffering from cardiovascular disease. We are confident that Healthy Hearts is leading the way in the prevention, diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease.”

Bradford’s biggest killer is cardiovascular disease (CVD), a collection of conditions such as stroke, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease and heart failure which all affect the heart and blood vessels.

Bradford’s Healthy Hearts has helped 10,000 patients in the Bradford area since it began its three-year work last year.

In February, Professor Huon Gray, clinical director for heart disease at NHS England and also a leading cardiologist, attended a presentation by the Healthy Hearts campaign team who listed its achievements in the past 12 months and suggested which could benefit other CCGs across the country.

Professor Gray, who is based in Southampton, said the rest of the country could learn a lot from the work that has been taking place in Bradford in finding ways of reducing the consequences of cardiovascular disease.

More than 800 people in the Bradford area are now on vital stroke preventive medicine which has reduced the risk of them having a stroke by up to 75 per cent.

The risk of stroke for people with the heart rhythm disorder Atrial Fibrillation can be reduced by more than two-thirds by taking an anticoagulant medication like warfarin prescribed by a doctor.

In the first phase of the campaign, GPs also reviewed patients taking cholesterol-lowering statins to ensure they were getting the best care available to reduce their risk of a future stroke and heart attack.

By switching to different statins, more than 5,000 patients have reduced their cholesterol level and more than 4,000 patients at moderate to high chance of heart attack and stroke have also been prescribed statins to reduce their risk.