Greater Manchester partners are working with underserved communities in Rochdale and Manchester to improve cardiovascular health

Greater Manchester has one of the highest death rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in England. Through funding from the System Transformation Fund (STF), Greater Manchester partners are working with local health systems to deploy innovative ideas and solutions to engage with and improve cardiovascular health in two underserved communities.

There is a strong relationship between health and deprivation, with more deprived communities experiencing worse health and a shorter life-expectancy than more affluent groups. Manchester and Rochdale, amongst other areas in GM, make up some of the most income deprived local authorities in England. Increased CVD mortality across GM localities also correlates with areas of higher deprivation.

The System Transformation Fund (STF) is an award that supports local lipid pathway transformation across integrated care systems. Supported by Health Innovation Manchester and NHS Greater Manchester, locality project lead organisations are working together with representative VCSE community organisations to create community-led solutions that help improve engagement and access to services for CVD prevention, and optimise treatment interventions for cardiovascular health within the communities.

The project also aims to improve health literacy and access to review services for CVD prevention, specifically for blood pressure and cholesterol. This will be achieved by working collaboratively with the South Asian community in Rochdale and the Black Caribbean community in targeted areas in Manchester.

Evaluation will be led by the two localities and their VCSE partners, who have extensive expertise in community engagement and co-production with a focus on inequalities, and are supported by the public and Community Involvement and Engagement (PCIE) team within the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM) and Health Innovation Manchester.

GM project partners:

• Health Innovation Manchester
• Greater Manchester Integrated Care
• Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Integrated Care Partnership 
• Living Well Rochdale team
• Manchester Integrated Care Partnership
• BHA for Equality
• CAHN
• Winning Hearts and Minds

Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Limited (“Novartis”) has provided the funding for the creation of the System Transformation Fund (“STF”) as part of a collaborative working project between NHS England and Novartis. Novartis has had (i) no input into the delivery or execution of the STF and (ii) no involvement in the identification and/or selection of the recipients of the STF. Ownership of the web copy is the responsibility of NHS GM. The content of this web copy has not been checked or reviewed by Novartis.