Celebrating a milestone, and looking ahead at 2025

Welcome to this year’s last edition of the Advocacy newsletter.

We are delighted to share the news that on 3 December, Ministers of Health in the EU voted to approve "Council Conclusions on the Improvement of Cardiovascular Health in the EU", drafted during the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU (which comes to an end this month).

This text, which required unanimous approval from Member States, calls on the European Commission to take action on cardiovascular health, using Europe's Beating Cancer Plan as an example framework.

The text also calls on EU Member States to adopt or update national plans, either as standalone cardiovascular health frameworks or within broader non-communicable disease agendas.

The Conclusions call for prevention across the life course, early identification and treatment of people at risk of CVD, promotion of health checks, improving health literacy, addressing inequalities, improving access and rehabilitation, promotion of research, expansion of data registries and more. 

This is a significant policy milestone in Europe. A sincere thank you to all the National Cardiac Societies who made tremendous efforts throughout the year in helping achieve these Council Conclusions, including the generously contributed data and evidence referenced throughout the document provided by ESC Atlas.

Continue reading below for an interview with Prof. Robert Gil, President of the Polish Cardiac Society, ahead of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU starting in January.

Enjoy the read and stay tuned for more updates in 2025!

Prof. Susanna Price

Chair of the ESC Advocacy Committee 

Spotlight on: Cardiovascular health in Poland

Poland faces high risks of cardiovascular diseases. The average life expectancy is below 80 years, with significant differences between genders. Mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases are above the EU average, causing 41% of deaths in women, and 33% of deaths in men.

Here is a visual representation using data from our ESC Atlas.

A new national programme running from 2022 to 2032 aims to address these issues, with an annual budget of €65 million, focusing on prevention and lifestyle changes. The programme includes investments in human resources, education, and innovation. 

Interview with Prof. Robert Gil

We spoke with Prof. Robert Gil, President of the Polish Cardiac Society, and learned about his expectations as well as his concerns. What follows are excerpts from the interview, edited for clarity.

What is the current situation in terms of cardiovascular health in Poland?

This question is very painful for me, as the situation is not as good as it should be.

First of all, according to the ESC’s data, we are among the countries with a high chance of cardiovascular diseases. This means that a 70-year-old man in Poland, with no history of cardiovascular events, faces double the risk of death compared to those living in low-risk countries in Europe.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Poland’s average mortality per year was around 80,000 to 90,000 people. Right now, it’s much higher, and while I don’t have exact numbers, it exceeds these figures by around 20,000 people a year.

What are some of the risk factors?

We have performed many epidemiological studies on the risk factors among our population: we can now say that more than 20 million Poles have hypercholesterolemia, and around 11 to 12 million suffer from arterial hypertension. Obesity affects between seven and nine million people. 

What is also very bad is that right now, there is a significant increase of smokers in our population - based on our calculations it’s at around 25% today, compared to around 15% a few years ago. This is our reality regarding cardiovascular disease, and we are not happy about it.

What is the history of national action plans for cardiovascular health in Poland?

This is also a very interesting story. Since we joined the European Union some 20 years ago, we have had three national action plans. 

The first two were dedicated mainly to improving the infrastructure and purchase of contemporary medical equipment - to build the base of cardiology in Poland. First, that was only for the cardiological sector, then we implemented this for cardiac surgery, and later also for neurology.

But now, things are different. Our third action plan is dedicated to changing the system, rather than focusing on infrastructure. The National Programme for Cardiovascular Diseases, as it’s called, is a multi-year programme that entered into force in December 2022 and will run until 2032, introducing comprehensive changes in Polish cardiology and related fields.

What is also very important is that this comprehensive cardiology strategy concentrates its activity on five main areas that are key to achieving the synergy effect and improving the epidemiological indicators related to cardiovascular diseases in Poland.

The five areas include investments in human resources, education, prevention and lifestyle, patients, science and innovation, and the cardiac career.

This is a big moment for us. Our Council of Ministers promised to spend almost 3 billion PLN just for this programme, that means around 300 million PLN (€70 million) each year. 

The programme should contribute to reducing the incidence of classic cardiovascular risk factors in the Polish population, such as hypertension, smoking, lipid disorders, obesity and diabetes, through investments in science, education, and organisational changes, among others. 

You remember the numbers I quoted earlier? They’re the reason to design this kind of programme. And there is, of course, the expectation that the patient's quality of life, affected by cardiovascular diseases, will also improve.

Citizens will have equal and adequate access to high quality healthcare service through a friendly, modern, and effective healthcare system, which is not so good as of right now.

Do you foresee any progress during Poland’s upcoming Council Presidency of the EU, which will last until July 2025?

Well, I am an incurable optimist.

I believe that the current Hungarian Presidency will end with the adoption of Council Conclusions on the Improvement of Cardiovascular Health in the EU, and Poland will be the first to implement these agreed proposed actions, adapted to our national context.

Building on the work which we have achieved together in 2024, we look forward to working with all our partners to ensure strong policy decisions for cardiovascular health across all ESC member countries in 2025.

Best regards,

ESC Advocacy Team