TWO nurses have been appointed to help fight heart disease in Durham and Chester-le-Street.
The area's primary care group has given Carol Ruddick and Paula Dailey the job of improving the treatment of sufferers and identifying people at risk.
The pair, who have worked extensively with heart disease patients, will set up coronary heart disease clinics in GP surgeries and support practice nurses who run existing clinics.
They will encourage people to reduce the risk of heart disease by quitting smoking, losing weight, eating more healthily and taking exercise.
The nurses will also check whether patients have the most appropriate medication and work closely with hospital rehabilitation programmes that help heart patients resume active lives.
Carol Ruddick said: "Heart disease kills 29 per cent more people in Durham and Chester-le-Street each year than in England and Wales as a whole and we hope to reduce this."
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