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The Health Policy Partnership

HPP

We are a specialist health policy consultancy.

Lobbying Activity

Response to EU cardiovascular health plan

15 Sept 2025

Addressing heart failure is vital for an impactful European Cardiovascular Health Plan. Heart failure (HF) is a major public health challenge across Europe carrying profound economic and social consequences.It is a leading cause of hospitalisation among people over 65 years, and accounts for up to 2% of health system spending. Indirect costs further impact people with the condition, their families and loved ones, as well as wider society and economies. Despite its prevalence, HF remains under-recognised. A recent Portuguese study found that over 15% of people over 50 are living with HF, and this number rises to 30% in those over 70. Alarmingly, 90% of people diagnosed were previously unaware of their condition, with some only identified at an advanced stage of disease. With Europes population ageing, the number of people with HF and the related hospitalisations is projected to continue rising substantially. For a cardiovascular health plan to succeed, HF must be a focal component. HF is not inevitable; there is much we can do to mitigate the disease. When the condition is detected early, progression can be slowed, reducing hospital admissions and avoiding acute crises. But basic lifestyle and risk management strategies alone are rarely sufficient. HF typically develops after long-term exposure to underlying chronic conditions and elevated risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, alcohol consumption, previous heart attack or cancer treatment. Detecting red-flag symptoms, applying structured prevention strategies and ensuring rapid diagnosis with timely treatment are therefore crucial to changing the trajectory of the disease. The EU can play a pivotal role in guiding Member States to act. A future-ready cardiovascular health strategy must prioritise three core areas: 1) Proactive identification of people at risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart failure through comprehensive health checks. 1.1. People at risk of cardiovascular disease should receive a cardiovascular health check in primary care, including assessment of HF red-flag symptoms (e.g. swollen ankles, breathlessness). 1.2. This should be supported by a Council Recommendation that sets out a standard framework for adoption across Member States, including clear criteria for who and what should be assessed, and when. 2) Early detection of HF through enhanced screening to catch the disease in its earliest stages and prevent costly acute events. 2.1. People identified as at risk of HF (e.g. with diabetes, prior cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, HF symptoms) should promptly receive natriuretic peptide testing, with onward referral to specialist testing such as echocardiography. 2.2. There is compelling evidence that screening for red-flag symptoms followed by specialist testing could be a cost-effective and feasible strategy for at-risk groups. 3) Delivery of best-practice care for HF to improve quality of life and prevent avoidable hospitalisations. 3.1. The vital role of multidisciplinary care and cardiac rehabilitation should be reinforced as part of guideline-directed HF management. 3.2. This can be supported through funding research into best-practice models of HF care, with an emphasis on reducing inequity in access and outcomes, and through the development cardiovascular centres of excellence across Europe, with HF care included as a core competency. These tangible commitments will make a substantial difference to the millions of people living with HF in Europe, and the millions more who remain at risk or undiagnosed.
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Meeting with Katherine Power (Cabinet of Commissioner Mairead Mcguinness)

25 Oct 2023 · Role of the EU in promoting heart health

Meeting with Erik Poulsen (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

20 Jun 2023 · NCD

Meeting with Billy Kelleher (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Mar 2023 · Heart Failure / CVD Policy

Response to Cancer Screening Recommendation

22 Feb 2022

The Lung Cancer Policy Network is a global, multidisciplinary network of 32 lung cancer experts, set up under the Lung Ambition Alliance in 2021. The Lung Ambition Alliance aims to eliminate lung cancer as a cause of death, and was founded by the Global Lung cancer Coalition, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, AstraZeneca and Guardant Health. As a Network, we strongly recommend that targeted lung cancer screening, through low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), be included in the forthcoming EU recommendations. We also suggest that the EU should encourage and provide guidance to Member States to explore the feasibility of implementing large-scale national programmes within their specific national contexts. We feel that the clinical, economic and implementation research on LDCT screening is now at a stage of maturity to justify this recommendation, and have provided detailed evidence to support this position in the attached document: • Lung Cancer Policy Network response to the EU call for evidence. We also wish to highlight the report, Lung Cancer Screening: the cost of inaction, published in July 2021. This report is a comprehensive review of the clinical and cost effectiveness evidence for lung cancer screening in targeted populations using low-dose CT scans. It highlights the potential of lung cancer screening to improve patient outcomes while also reducing the cost burden on healthcare systems. We have provided a link to the report within the attached Network response document.
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Response to Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan

2 Mar 2020

The Beating Cancer Plan aims to ‘improve the prevention, detection, treatment and management of cancer.’ We would like to ensure that a broad definition of ‘treatment’ is taken and considers all approaches to cancer treatment. In particular, we wish to draw attention to approaches using radioactivity - such as radioligand therapy (also known as radionuclide therapy or molecular radiotherapy). Radioligand therapy delivers radiation directly to selected cells. Treatment is highly adaptable and offers targeted treatment with limited damage to surrounding cells. The approach is emerging as an important component of cancer care; it has shown to improve progression-free survival and quality of life for people with neuroendocrine cancers and castration-resistant prostate cancer metastasised in bone and is under investigation in many other forms of cancer. In 2019, The Health Policy Partnership, an independent policy research organisation, worked with clinical and patient experts to develop policy recommendations for improving integration of radioligand therapy into cancer care. The fact that radioligand therapy uses radioactive materials has particular implications for the infrastructure needed to deliver them – and appropriate systems planning is needed as well as alignment of European bodies involved in nuclear and health policy. We wish to highlight the following issues for consideration in the Beating Cancer Plan: - Greater public and professional awareness of radioactive substances in healthcare is required. Limited understanding among healthcare professionals may lead to fewer referrals of eligible patients and affect patients’ perceptions of this treatment option. - Additional training and better integration of specialists delivering radioligand therapy is needed. Specialists administering treatment should be an integral part of the multidisciplinary team, but limited availability of nuclear medicine professionals restricts their participation. Multidisciplinary working is increasingly important as treatment combinations become more common. - Regulatory frameworks must be adapted at an EU and MS level. Existing regulatory frameworks developed for conventional medicines may need adapting to be appropriate for radioligand therapy. This is not unique to radioligand therapy; modifications are likely required for approaches such as surgery or radiotherapy, and other advanced therapies. - Nuclear energy and health policies must be closely aligned. Approaches using radioactivity require greater coordination between policies for health and nuclear energy. Yet such policies are set by different regulatory bodies and often misaligned, resulting in limited availability of the therapy. - Sufficient infrastructure for radioligand therapy delivery requires planning. ‘Unfit healthcare models and workforce’ persist in radioligand therapy and drive geographical variations in access. People travel significant distances, and across countries, for treatment. As the number of people eligible for radioligand therapy grows, existing treatment centres will not have the resources to provide care. - We must ensure a consistent supply of radioisotopes. Planned or unplanned maintenance of nuclear reactors and difficulties in processing and distribution signifies that the global supply of radioisotopes is fragile. Such instability directly impacts availability of diagnostic tests and medical procedures. Efforts to improve the reliability of supply must be strengthened. Despite significant advances in treatment, current cancer care often fails to meet the needs of many patients. Ensuring patients have appropriate access to all effective treatment options should be the ambition of any cancer policy – and European-level efforts are needed to help mitigate existing barriers to availability. We hope that the Commission will consider these barriers and address them in the Beating Cancer Plan.
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