Thank you to everyone that came and contributed to our first Heart of our Community event on 26 September, bringing together key voices from the Nottingham healthcare network to discuss how to improve heart health through collaboration.
Heart conditions are one of the leading causes of ill health and premature death in Nottingham, with multiple complex factors contributing to these high levels. Statistics presented on the day by Dr David Johns (Deputy Director of Public Health at Nottingham City Council) showed how poor heart health disproportionately affects people from Black and Asian backgrounds, with smoking and poverty also substantial contributing factors.
To combat the multiple causes of poor heart health and effectively target the communities who are most at risk, we need to share knowledge, experience, and insight across networks. The Heart of our Community event aimed to kickstart such relationships and help us all look at the wider picture of heart health in our communities.
We were privileged to be joined by contributors from across the network who reflected on their experiences of working with patients encountering heart problems, and their thoughts on how we can improve outcomes. After PBP Clinical Director Dr Husein Mawji opened up the event, Dr Andy Foster and Ciara Stuart from the PBP spoke about how Integrated Neighbourhood Working can be utilised to help target specific communities more at-risk of heart conditions.
There were also valuable insights from Dr Emma Sawyer (GP at Sherrington Park Medical Practice), Jules Sebelin (Chief Executive of Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service), and members of the Nottingham CityCare cardiac team. New PBP Chair Tim Guyler closed out the day speaking passionately about why improving heart health is of personal importance to him, and praising the work being done to help connect the dots between services in the city.
We would like to thank everyone who attended the event and shared their thoughts and ideas on how we can work collaboratively to tackling this vital issue in our community. We hope the discussions held and the connections made will help us create a joined-up approach to improving heart health in Nottingham.
You can read more about the purpose of the event here: https://healthandcarenotts.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Heart-of-our-community-Event-Summary.pdf