Britain faces a health and pensions crisis as baby-boomers fall prey to heart disease and stroke, a leading heart charity said yesterday.

Far from working longer to ease pension concerns, millions of people in their fifties and sixties are likely to be forced into early retirement and disablement unless more is done to limit the impact of heart disease.

Although deaths from heart disease are falling, Britain lags other Western European countries, and the number living with the condition and leaving the workforce prematurely is rising, says the report from Heart UK.

The tragedy is, it says, that high cholesterol levels — the single most important cause of the disease — can be controlled by a healthy diet and lifestyle or by being prescribed statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs.

“UK targets for tackling the issue are outdated, and performance in meeting them is poor,” said Tony Hockley, a research associate at the London School of Economics and director of the Policy Analysis Centre.

“The UK aims at the minimum standards, even in people who have suffered a heart attack. In some practices only 10 per cent of patients of the right age have had their cholesterol levels assessed.”

The charges will wound the Department of Health, which has put huge effort into improving heart care, and now spends more than £500 million a year on statins.

But Andrew Neil, chairman of Heart UK, while applauding the “fantastic improvements” that had been made, said: “The number of people developing and living with heart disease is spiralling, and the result is that our Government is sleepwalking into a potential health and pensions crisis.”

Mr Hockley said a study had put the cost of heart disease and stroke at £7 billion a year. About half of this related to direct healthcare costs and £2.9 billion was for loss of output. “The poor management of coronary heart disease (CHD) could lead to a 40 per cent increase in GP appointments by 2020 and 36,000 extra hospital treatments,” he said.

“CHD will become the number one cause of long-term ill-health. The Government’s plan to raise the retirement age and keep people working longer is under threat.”

Tony Leeds, of King’s College London, said that the long-term problems had been caused by success in keeping people alive. “A vastly greater proportion survive than in the past,” he said. “So the number of survivors with some degree of disability is much greater.”

Heart UK was reluctant to call for general health screening for the over50s, which would detect elevated cholesterol levels, but Dr Leeds said two thirds of adults had levels that were too high. Instead, he called for greater awareness among doctors and better access to testing. For those found to have high levels, he said that advice on changing diet and lifestyle should be the first option, followed by statins.

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