Act now to save limbs and lives: The case for immediate action in Peripheral Arterial Disease

Date: May 2025

A roundtable was held in the Houses of Parliament on 3rd December 2024 that brought together key stakeholders from across the vascular ecosystem, including clinicians, patient representatives, patient groups, and parliamentarians. It was hosted by Jim Shannon MP, Chair of the Vascular and Venous Disease All-Party Parliamentary Group, and chaired by former NHS Regional Director for London, Dr Anne Rainsberry.

The roundtable took place due to concerns about the challenges and disparities in treatment of PAD, and the lack of awareness of the disease among the public and healthcare professionals which has had dramatic and unfortunate consequences – with large numbers of people in England having life-changing and unnecessary lowerlimb amputations.

The objective of the roundtable was to discuss these challenges, identify collaborative solutions to improve the patient pathway, drive awareness of PAD among clinicians and patients, and brainstorm ways to ensure timely access to innovative treatments to prevent disease progression and avoid limb amputations where possible.

It emphasised the need to address the growing burden of PAD and highlighted the importance of collaboration between healthcare professionals, policymakers, and patient groups to drive change.

This report summarises the roundtable discussion, and presents a number of recommendations to drive awareness and service improvement of PAD among the public, the NHS, and the Government.

The document is supported by the Circulation Foundation and Legs Matter. Also in attendance were parliamentarians and a number of NHS trusts in England.

The roundtable was sponsored by Shockwave Medical.