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Media and Communications Officer
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New report reviews the quality of heart failure care in England
A chartbook published by the Health Foundation today suggests that prevention is key to improving outcomes for people with heart failure as well as being the most cost effective intervention.
Survival rates are improving and waits for diagnostic tests are falling, however heart failure services in England have been slow to improve when compared with international comparators and guidelines are not being adequately followed.
Preventative measures such as effective lowering of blood pressure in patients with hypertension reduces the risk of heart failure and secondary measures like cardiac rehabilitation have shown to improve patients’ quality of life.
The chartbook, 'Bridging the quality gap: heart failure', provides a comprehensive review of the quality of heart failure care in England, captures the international evidence on what works to improve care and assesses the cost-effectiveness of different interventions.
The analysis also demonstrates that there are considerable financial gains to be made by better diagnosis and treatment of people with heart failure. The evidence suggests that this would lead to an increase in the number of lives saved and improve the quality of life for many more.
Roger Boyle, National Director for Heart Disease and Stroke has welcomed the report and said, ‘The NHS has made good progress in improving heart failure care over the last ten years but the modelling of future need suggests that the burden of heart failure will increase substantially over future years. The economic burden, as well as the personal burden, needs to be addressed so that people with heart failure can be helped to manage their condition better and so that they can be managed closer to home. The Health Foundation report is a welcome addition to our knowledge on this topic.’
Stephen Thornton, Chief Executive at the Health Foundation said: ‘The evidence in this report shows that there needs to be a focus on closing this gap between best and current practice in provision of care for heart failure. We would welcome more strategic attention to be paid to heart failure, particularly around prevention and screening.’
Heart failure, which is the only major cardiovascular condition to become more prevalent in recent decades affecting approximately 900,000 people a year in the UK, costs the NHS approximately £625 million each year. It is responsible for dramatically reducing quality of life and carries a poor prognosis for patients, who associate heart failure with an inevitable downward spiral.
