The total UK expenditure is £3.4 billion (€5.2 billion) a year -- almost a quarter of the EU’s entire spending on CHD.

This spend reflects the huge advances in treatment for heart disease in the UK. It no longer means a quick death -- 2.7 million people in the UK are now living with heart disease and require ongoing care.

Mounting Productivity Losses

On top of the healthcare costs, heart disease prevents many patients from working, and the UK loses almost £877 million annually as a result. This represents more than a third of the EU total for lost productivity.

The figures out today also show that informal care for CHD, provided by the unpaid friends and family whose full-time jobs are looking after heart patients, costs £1.14 billion every year in lost economic productivity, and much more than that in reduced quality of life. Only Germany, with a far larger population than the UK, loses more money.

Real Valentine Appeal

"As survival with heart disease has improved, it has become a long-term, chronic condition for more and more people, rather than a means to a quick death," says Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director of the BHF. "The statistics out today illustrate some of the shortcomings in our methods of caring for the 2.7 million people in the UK who have to live with heart disease," he notes.

"The BHF’s Real Valentine Appeal aims to increase the support available to these patients," says Professor Weissberg, "by funding more specialist nurses who have the expertise to make a real difference to their lives.

"As well as making good medical and moral sense, it makes good financial sense as specialist nurses can streamline a patient’s care so that they don’t need to keep coming back to hospital," he reasons.

See full table of European spending on healthcare for heart disease