Man endorses charity campaign after 18-hour heart attack wait

A retired teacher who waited around 18 hours to be treated in hospital for a heart attack is among more than 40,000 people backing a British Heart Foundation (BHF) campaign to fix ‘the worst heart care crisis in living memory’. 

In April 2022, Glynn Evans, 76, started to get an indigestion-like pain in his chest while on holiday in Bodmin, Cornwall, with family. He wasn’t worried at first, but by around 8pm that evening, he and his wife knew something was seriously wrong. Glynn’s wife Lyn rang 999. 

Glynn, from Bourne in Lincolnshire, said:

“My son-in-law was going to take me to hospital, but said the last thing he wanted was for me to keel over in the back of his car. So, we waited for the ambulance. It eventually turned up the next morning.” 

Glynn said that when he finally got to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, there were 24 ambulances in the queue ahead of him.  

Glynn, a granddad of six, added:

“I stayed in the ambulance and a doctor had to come out to me to do a blood test. He came back later and told me that it wasn’t good news – I’d had a heart attack.” 

Glynn wasn’t seen in hospital until around 2pm, around 18 hours after his wife first called 999. 

Delays in heart attack treatment can lead to permanent disability or even death. Before the pandemic, the average ambulance response target for suspected heart attacks and strokes was 18 minutes on average, but this was increased to 30 minutes due to pressure and long delays in ambulance services. The 30-minute target has been met just once since May 2021.  

The BHF is drawing attention to the ongoing and extreme waits for emergency, urgent and routine heart care as part of its latest campaign, Hearts Need More.  

The leading heart charity has launched an online pledge, which asks people to add their name to a call for the new Government to prioritise heart and circulatory diseases. 

More than 40,000 people have signed so far, many of whom have either been directly affected by long waits for heart care or know someone who has been. 

Now the BHF is hoping to reach a milestone of 50,000 signatures. The charity hopes a swell of support will help convince the new government to commit to a heart disease action plan. 

Cardiovascular disease affects 7.6 million people across the UK, and it is one of the UK’s biggest killers, claiming one in four lives. 

Glynn, who now lives with heart failure, said:

“The doctor who treated me was furious that I had to wait so long. I’m not sure my heart failure would be quite as bad if it hadn’t taken so long to treat me. 

“There’s nothing that anyone can do about my long wait now. But I don’t want anyone else to have to wait that long and miss out on the best available treatment. That’s why I’m supporting the BHF’s Hearts Need More campaign.” 

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive at the BHF, said:

“Glynn’s story makes it clear: we’re in the grip of the worst heart care crisis the country has ever faced. 

“What happened to Glynn was unacceptable, and it wasn’t just a one-off. At the BHF, we get calls almost every day from people who have gone through stressful and often dangerous waits for heart tests, treatment, or even emergency care. 

“Long waits for heart care put lives on the line. For the first time on record, we’re seeing a sustained rise in early heart and circulatory disease deaths. That means thousands more families are ripped apart.  

“Our new Government has the power to stop this ongoing tragedy once and for all, but it will take everyone’s help. Please sign your name to show our new Prime Minister that heart patients can’t wait any longer for a future free from pain and heartbreak.” 

Earlier this year, the BHF warned that the country has seen a lost decade of progress in reducing premature deaths from cardiovascular disease. For more than 50 years, groundbreaking research and advances in medicine have helped to make huge strides towards reducing deaths from heart attack and stroke.  

However, since 2012 there has been a significant slowdown in the rate of improvement. And since 2020, the premature death rate in England has risen year-on-year. Latest figures for 2022 show that an average of 750 people a week aged 75 or under died from cardiovascular disease in England – the highest annual total since 2008. 

In over four years since the pandemic began, the number of people in England waiting for planned heart care has almost doubled to nearly 420,000, and average ambulance waiting times for heart attacks and strokes have remained consistently above target. There are also concerns of a potential rise in heart problems linked to Covid-19. 

There has also been a lack of meaningful action over the last 10 years to address many of the causes of heart disease and stroke, such as stubbornly high obesity rates and smoking. 

Since 2010, the health gap between rich and poor has significantly widened. The most deprived parts of England have been getting sicker, with stalling improvement in healthy life expectancy and increasing rates of early death from some cardiovascular conditions. 

To fix this historic heart crisis, the BHF wants to see a heart disease action plan from the new Government with three areas of focus: better prevention of heart disease and stroke, making sure people get heart treatment in time, and supercharging cardiovascular research. 
 
Sign the BHF’s pledge here.