The East of England cardiovascular disease and respiratory (CVDR) networks, together with the diabetes network and renal clinical network are at the heart of improving care across the region.

By bringing together diverse multi-professional stakeholders, we provide leadership and a focused approach to tackle the national, regional and local priorities.

Our work centres on enhancing patient outcomes, reducing inequalities, and improving the quality and value of healthcare services.

Our core aims:

• Improve population health and healthcare outcomes.
• Tackle health inequalities and improve access to care.
• Enhance the quality of patient care.
• Increase productivity and value for money within the NHS.
• Support broader social and economic development.

The cardiovascular disease and respiratory networks, together with the diabetes network and renal network, cover a range of long-term conditions across full pathways of care across the East of England region.

The CVDR networks aim to seek regional solutions to common issues and provide sound building blocks for the transformation of pathways, as well as looking at better ways to support patients at home and optimise their treatment and outcomes.

East of England clinical networks include

1. CVD prevention clinical advisory group
2. Cardiac clinical network
3. Diabetes clinical network
4. Integrated stroke delivery networks
5. Respiratory clinical network
6. Renal clinical network

CVD prevention clinical advisory group

Introduction

The CVD prevention clinical advisory group unites clinical, ICB/LTC leads and operational leaders to coordinate prevention efforts across cardiac, stroke, diabetes, and renal networks.

It supports the goal outlined in the NHS 10 year health plan and plan for change commitment to reduce the number of lives lost to cardiovascular disease by improving detection and management of key risk factors, including atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, driving consistent improvements in heart health across the region.

Workstream priorities

Focus areas include improving detection and treatment of hypertension, high cholesterol, and atrial fibrillation, while addressing health inequalities through the Core20PLUS5 approach.

Targets for March 2026 include:

• Hypertension: Improve detection and treatment according to NICE guidance
• Cholesterol management: Improve detection and treatment of high cholesterol in all populations, continuing to address health inequalities and deliver Core20PLUS5 approach.
• Atrial fibrillation: Improve detection rates of atrial fibrillation in all populations, continuing to address health inequalities and deliver Core20PLUS5 approach.
• Identification and coding of patients with stage 3a-5 chronic kidney disease (CKD) to enable early and appropriate management.

For more information, please contact the cardiac network via the generic email address: eoecardiacnetwork@nhs.net

For information on network events and access to regional resource and guidance, please join our Future NHS page: EoE Regional CVD Prevention Network – Futures

 2.  Cardiac clinical network

Introduction

The vision and aims of the cardiac network are to “deliver better heart health and healthcare outcomes for all”.

This is achieved by setting the strategic direction for local cardiac services, driving operational improvement and implementing high quality, standardised pathways of care across prevention, diagnosis, acute/specialist treatment, rehabilitation, and end of life care.

Priorities – national and regional priorities in cardiac programme

1. Reduce waiting times for referral, diagnostics, treatment and interventions (P2, P3) including perioperative programmes
2. Heart failure and heart valve disease: earlier diagnosis, improved access to diagnostics; treatment closer to home and reduction of readmissions
3. Acute pathways: improve survival of out of hospital cardiac arrests, improved heart attack treatment times and reduce emergency admissions
4. Cardiac rehab: targeting systems where BACPR standards are not being met; increasing access and quality of services.

Additional priorities for the East of England network include:

• Improved referral pathways into cardiology outpatients and better communication between primary and secondary care.
• Increase of discharge medicines service referrals in region. Establishment of non-medical prescribers community of practice for all non-medical prescribers within region, and improve the efficiencies of cardiac catheter laboratories.

Workstreams

The network has a series of workstreams designed to ensure we met the outlined priorities across:

1. CVD prevention
2. Diagnostics
3. Cardiac rehabilitation
4. Heart failure and breathlessness
5. Outpatients and referrals
6. Acute coronary syndrome
7. Cardiac Surgery

For more information, please contact the cardiac clinical network via the generic email address: eoecardiacnetwork@nhs.net

For information on network events and access to regional resource and guidance, please join our Future NHS page: East of England Cardiac Network – Futures

 3. Diabetes clinical network

Introduction

The East of England diabetes clinical network works to improve health outcomes and quality of life for people living with, or at risk of, diabetes.

We support healthcare professionals and organisations to deliver high-quality, equitable care by reducing variation, addressing inequalities, and sharing best practice, all in alignment with national priorities.

Workstream priorities

National programme funding priorities (2025/26):

1. Increase referrals to the NHS diabetes prevention programme.
2. Promote uptake of the Type 2 Diabetes remission (T2DR) programme.
3. Support access to the T2Day programme for adults aged 18–39 with type 2 diabetes.
4. Improve uptake of digital structured education for people with diabetes.

Other national and local priorities:

1. Enable access to hybrid closed loop systems for people with type 1 diabetes (per NICE TA943).
2. Expand access to flash and continuous glucose monitoring, ensuring equity and uptake (per NICE NG17, NG18 & NG28).
3. Improve outcomes for children and young adults, including supporting transition pilots in partnership with CYP networks.
4. Monitor and support the Type 1 disordered eating (T1DE) pilot sites.
5. Increase delivery of the eight key care processes and achievement of the three treatment targets.
6. Re-establish a diabetic footcare network, expanding engagement across footcare providers.
7. Support GIRFT initiatives, including:
8. A self-administration of insulin (SAMI) working group.
9. A regional workshop on improving perioperative care for people with diabetes.

For more information, please contact the cardiac clinical network via the generic email address: East of England Diabetes Clinical Network – Futures

For information on network events and access to regional resource and guidance, please join our Future NHS page: eoediabetescn@nhs.net

 4.  Integrated stroke delivery networks

Introduction

The East of England Integrated stroke delivery networks (ISDNs) aims to lead improvements in stroke prevention, treatment, and recovery across the region.

Aligned with the NHS long term plan, national stroke service model (2021) (NSSM), integrated community stroke service model (2022) (ICSSM), and the Stroke GIRFT report (2022), the ISDNs work across two regional networks, North and South, covering all six integrated care systems.

Priorities

To ensure all people in the East of England have access to high-quality, timely, and equitable stroke care, improving outcomes and reducing variation across the stroke pathway

1. Enhance stroke prevention to reduce incidence.
2. Improve equity of access to acute and community stroke services.
3. Implement nationally recommended and evidence – based models of care (NSSM and ICSSM).
4. Reduce health inequalities and improve recovery outcomes.
5. Support delivery of evidence-based, guideline-compliant stroke care.
6. Address operational challenges, including mechanical thrombectomy provision.

Workstreams

The network has a series of workstreams designed to ensure we met the outlined priorities across:

1. Strong artificial intelligence
2. Pre-hospital clinical advisory group
3. Pre-hospital stroke video triage (SVT)
4. Admissions pathway improvement CAG
5. National optimal stroke imaging pathway (NOSIP)
6. Stroke rehabilitation clinical advisory group
7. Community stroke rehabilitation pathway and workforce development
8. Mechanical thrombectomy

For more information, please contact the cardiac clinical network via the generic email address: East of England Stroke Platform – Futures

For information on network events and access to regional resource and guidance, please join our Future NHS page: england.eoestroke@nhs.net

 5.  Respiratory clinical network

Introduction

The East of England respiratory clinical network aims to supports earlier diagnosis, improved access to treatment such as pulmonary rehabilitation, and better management of respiratory conditions.

It also focuses on reducing health inequalities, promoting care closer to home, and implementing evidence-based pathways to improve outcomes across the region.

Priorities

The priorities for respiratory disease set out in the NHS long term Plan are

1. Early detection and diagnosis of respiratory conditions.
2. Expand access to pulmonary rehabilitation services.
3. Support appropriate use of respiratory medications for better disease management.
4. Improve the NHS response to pneumonia across care settings.

Additionally, the national specification for networks has included aims to:

1. Adopt a population health management approach to improve respiratory outcomes at system level.
2. Reduce health inequalities by targeting high-need and underserved populations.
3. Implement evidence-based pathways for common respiratory conditions.
4. Restore and transform respiratory services, including remote monitoring and care closer to home.

 Workstreams

The network has a series of workstreams designed to ensure we met the outlined priorities across:

1. Asthma
2. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
3. Interstitial lung disease (ILD)
4. Pneumonia

For more information, please contact the respiratory clinical network via the generic email address: eoerespiratorynetwork@nhs.net

For information on network events and access to regional resource and guidance, please join our Future NHS page: http://www.future.nhs.uk/EOErespiratorynetwork

 6.  Renal clinical network

Introduction

The East of England renal network works to improve the quality, equity, and experience of renal care by providing strategic oversight and supporting collaboration across the system.

Aligned with national priorities, the network drives improvements through shared best practice, innovation, and outcome benchmarking.

Priorities

Priorities set out for the renal network include.

1. Reducing variation across the pathways of care through collaboration, joined up working and better understanding the use of data.
2. Implementation and embedding the renal specialised transformation programme toolkit within the East of England
3. Ensure that renal patients are treated in the right place at the right time, improve patient experience and improve equity of access to care.
4. Understanding the demand and capacity of all renal providers across the East of England and to support initiatives to ease demand.
5. Development of a renal dashboard to support improvement and delivery.
6. Increasing home dialysis numbers across all renal providers across the East of England, ensuring equity of access for all patients.
7. Increasing renal transplantation, with a focus on pre-emptive and live-donor transplantation.
8. Increasing early identification of chronic kidney disease within primary care
9. Increasing knowledge and learning opportunities for all health professionals working within renal care.

Workstreams

The network has a series of workstreams designed to ensure we met the outlined priorities across:

1. Acute kidney injury (AKI)
2. Chronic kidney disease (CKD)
3. Dialysis
4. Systems working
5. Transplantation
6. High-cost drug optimisation/ pharmacy

For more information, please contact the cardiac clinical network via the generic email address: enh-tr.eoerenalnetwork@nhs.net

For information on network events and access to regional resource and guidance, please join our Future NHS page: East of England Renal Clinical Network – Futures