November 18-24 will mark this year's global Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Awareness Week, organised by the AF Association. The aim of the week is to encourage people to detect AF through the 'know your pulse' program (www.knowyourpulse.org.uk).
We encourage you to download the attached resources and display the posters and leaflets around your practices, making patients aware of the condition and how to check their pulse. This will help us to build on the excellent work done on atrial fibrillation by GPs in BHR.
GPs in Redbridge, led by Dr Shabana Ali, were recently nominated for a HSJ Value award for their ground-breaking work in this area. They were shortlisted in the awards’ Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation category for their joint work to better identify and medicate patients with AF to reduce strokes across the borough. As a result of their work, Redbridge saw the biggest increase in London, and the second biggest increase nationally, in the proportion of high-risk AF patients being treated with anticoagulant medication which plays a vital part in helping to prevent strokes.
Dr Ali and colleagues will be promoting the importance of checking your pulse and knowing your numbers to shoppers in South Woodford on Tuesday (19 November) as part of AF week. They will be at the Marks and Spencer’ store in George Lane between 12pm and 2pm.
AF affects more than 1.5 million people in the UK, with up to 500,000 of those still unidentified and at high risk of an AF-related stroke. AF primarily affects adults aged 65 and over, and can quickly evolve into life-threatening complications such as stroke or heart failure.
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