GPs' failure to test for heart disease risks women's lives

12 April 2012

London GPs are failing to screen women for heart disease, a leading charity warned today.

An investigation by the British Heart Foundation found that only one in 10 women over 50 in the capital said their doctor had highlighted the risks.

Many were failing to offer women free health checks which can detect early signs of the illness. The charity said this lack of awareness was costing lives, and perpetuated the myth that heart disease only affects middle-aged men.

Dr Mike Knapton, a GP and associate medical director of the foundation, said: "It's vital that GPs 'think heart' for our female patients. All women over 40 are entitled to a free health check which takes just a few minutes. Too many lives are lost each year to a killer which is largely preventable."

Experts warn that women are increasingly at risk, especially those living stressful lives who fail to exercise and eat healthily. About 40,000 women a year die from heart disease in Britain, three times more than the number who die from breast cancer.

New figures show wide variations in death rates for London women. A total of 2,056 died of heart disease in the capital between 2006 and 2008. In Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham, more than 30 women die out of every 100,000. This compares with about 11 per 100,000 for Kensington and Chelsea and about 12 in Westminster.

The illness occurs when the heart can no longer pump properly. It often results from damage caused by a heart attack. This month the British Heart Foundation is launching the Mending Broken Hearts appeal, to help scientists pioneer treatments that help the or-gan's muscle repair itself, such as creating heart valves from human tissue to help patients with diseased ones.

The foundation's poll also discovered that more than one in 10 women would simply go to bed if they started showing symptoms such as breathlessness and tiredness. Another seven per cent would ignore problems entirely. Re-searchers quizzed 4,303 adults, including 128 London women aged over 50.

'IT'S NOT JUST A PROBLEM FOR OLD MEN'

Priscilla Chandro was 37 when she suffered a heart attack two years ago, despite no family history of heart disease.

The first warning sign for the businesswoman, from Ottershaw in Surrey, was a searing pain in her head which spread to her arms.

Her parents called an ambulance, but the crew suggested it was flu and told her to visit her GP.

It was only in A&E that doctors carried out a proper heart check and discovered her left artery was completed blocked.

Ms Chandro said: "I'd gone to bed, but instead of drifting off my head started to ache. It was a pain I'd never experienced before and one that spread to both my arms. It wasn't long before I was lying on the floor looking at the ceiling - I'd collapsed on my way to get some paracetamol."

She believes emotional stress was partly to blame.

"We've been fed this stereotype of who suffers from heart problems: old men. Women are very good at just carrying on with life and not recognising we may have a serious problem."

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