The urgency to diagnose heart failure in primary care

Heart failure affects over 64 million people worldwide and is increasing in prevalence. It is the leading cause of death worldwide, with an estimated 17.9 million deaths each year. That means survival rates are worse than those for bowel, breast or prostate cancer.

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Additionally, heart failure puts great stress on caregivers and healthcare systems with a high economic burden, due to repeated readmissions to hospital. It is actually the number one cause of admissions in hospitals.

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These numbers are frightening, but there are things we can do to improve them. One issue we should tackle together lies in enabling and prioritising early diagnosis. We know that prevalence is increasing and that mortality rates are high, comparable to other cancers.

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Being able to diagnose patients before they arrive at primary care is important. NICE released guidance earlier in the year suggesting that, when heart failure in adults is suspected, patients should have blood tests done to find out how well their heart is working.

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This means patients can be referred to specialist assessment and echocardiography to start the appropriate treatment early on, and thus be at lower risk of hospitalisation and mortality.

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The question is, how can we make diagnosis happen in primary care, before hospitalisation? In line with NICE’s guidelines, crucial measures include:

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• Ensure service providers in primary care have the correct systems to assess when heart failure is suspected in adults.
• Ensure healthcare professionals arrange or carry out the necessary blood tests when they suspect heart failure in adults.
• Healthcare systems (commissioners) need to make sure necessary testing is indeed available in primary care.

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About 1.5 billion people are at risk of developing heart failure. This is a key public health issue that needs to be addressed, bringing together policymakers and regulators, healthcare systems and caregivers to collaborate and help transform healthcare to tackle key challenges we are facing.

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#ValueofDiagnostics #heartfailure