CVDPREVENT

What is CVDPREVENT?

CVDPREVENT is a national audit of GP records to support primary care in understanding how many people with cardiovascular disease (CVD), or conditions that lead to a higher risk of developing CVD, are potentially undiagnosed, under treated or over treated.

CVDPREVENT provides a foundation for professionally led quality improvement in individual GP practices across primary care networks (PCNs). The audit provides data to highlight gaps, identify inequalities, and opportunities for improvement. Progress made in improving the diagnosis and treatment of those at risk of CVD will be monitored by the audit.

The CVDPREVENT audit is delivered by the NHS Benchmarking Network, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network team, and NHS England.

Annual reports

The NHS Benchmarking Network publishes an annual report summarising findings from the CVDPREVENT audit. This highlights national opportunities for improvement in CVD prevention and treatment of high-risk CVD conditions using data from GP systems.

Data and improvement tool

In addition to annual reports, a data and improvement tool is also available which  enables GPs and other healthcare professionals to identify groups who could benefit most from quality improvement activity locally, and data can be compared against national and local benchmarks, which can be broken down by demographics. There’s also a hub of resources to support patients to manage their condition through lifestyle changes and treatment pathways.

Outcomes indicators

The CVDPREVENT audit data has been linked to hospital and death records to better understand the health outcomes of patients with or at risk of CVD. This linked dataset has enabled the production of 10 new experimental outcome indicators which have been released via the data and improvement tool (outcomes section). Over time these new indicators may offer users a sense of whether the risk of death, and/or admission to hospital following heart attack and stroke in their area is changing among patients recorded in primary care. Download the CVDPREVENT outcomes indicator guide.

Audit delivery

Early development of the audit was overseen by the CVDPREVENT Implementation Steering Group which included representation from a wide range of partner organisations, including:

  • The Royal College of General Practitioners
  • NHS Digital
  • The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
  • The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly Public Health England)
  • NHS England
  • The British Heart Foundation
  • The Royal Pharmaceutical Society
  • The Primary Care Cardiovascular Society
  • GP representatives

The oversight of the delivery is now led by a CVDPREVENT Steering Group chaired by Helen Williams, National Clinical Director for CVD Prevention at NHS England, and Dr Pete Green is the clinical lead for NHS Benchmarking Network.

The audit is funded by NHS England and the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership. It is being delivered by the following organisations working in partnership:

  • NHS Digital (now NHS England) were directed under section 254 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of the information specified for this service. These directions are known as the cardiovascular disease prevention audit directions 2020.
  • On 1 February 2023, the statutory functions of NHS Digital transferred to NHS England under the Health and Social Care Information Centre (transfer of functions, abolition and transitional provisions) regulations 2023 (transfer regulations). Under the transfer regulations, the provisions of all directions from either the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care or NHS England to NHS Digital are to be treated as if contained in directions from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to NHS England.
  • The National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network team based in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, part of the Department for Health and Social Care, has been commissioned to deliver the analytical work package.
  • The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership have commissioned the NHS Benchmarking Network to provide the strategic oversight and clinical leadership. The NHS Benchmarking Network and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will work together to produce the intelligence outputs from the audit consulting widely with users.

Analysis and data linkage

Pursuant to NHS England’s powers under 254(1) and 254(6) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS Digital (now NHS England) is further directed to analyse the information collected pursuant to these directions, including by such reference or linkage to other data held by NHS England necessary to achieve the purpose.

A project to understand the care pathway for cardiac patients is using CVDPREVENT audit data and linking it to other data sets held by NHS England to provide richer information. This is intended to lead to better outcomes for patients via better pathway design and a greater understanding of the outcomes from different pathways. More information about the data sets and collections that NHS England holds and that may be used for linkage can be found on NHS Digital’s website.

Further details on CVDPREVENT and updates on the progress of the audit are available on the CVDPREVENT website.

If you have any queries about the audit, please email nhsbn.cvdprevent@nhs.net