COMMUNITY health workers who are cutting heart disease deaths in the Durham dales have been chosen as some of the best in the country for the second successive year.
A specialist coronary heart disease prevention team from the Durham Dales Primary Care Trust has been shortlisted for a national award recognising top quality health initiatives.
The trust already holds the prizes for the best team performance and the best implementation of a National Service Framework from last year's Primary Care Report Best Practice Awards.
It emphasised its commitment to promoting healthy living by teaming up with The Northern Echo, Wear Valley District Council and Northumbrian Water to launch A Chance to Live campaign encouraging people to eat well and take more exercise. It was the first primary trust in County Durham to employ specialist heart nurses working in coronary heart disease clinics and all 12 of its GP practices.
Nurse Patsy Cawley works from a one-stop heart failure clinic at Bishop Auckland General Hospital with consultant physician Dr Ali Mehrzad and Dr Andrew Hetherington, a GP with a special interest in cardiac problems.
Community-based coronary heart disease nurses identify at-risk patients to check their diagnosis is correct and get them referred early for treatment.
Specialist heart nurse Caroline Levie said: "The number of people who die prematurely from heart disease in the Durham Dales is higher than the national average.
"The heart failure team was set up to look at ways of improving the level and quality of service for people with heart failure, both in primary care and at local hospitals.
"We wanted to be proactive and have introduced many initiatives to help pick up patients at a much earlier stage in their disease."
Dr Stewart Findlay, chairman of the primary care trust's professional executive committee, said: "The innovative work carried out by the heart failure team will have an important impact on the quality of life for local people."
The awards ceremony will be held at the Caf Royal, in London, on Thursday.
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