"Hugh" Knew

Who knew it was European Heart Failure Awareness Day earlier this month? Not many people I would suspect and, in fact, even the health community that asked me to speak at their conference got the day wrong – oops! Having said that, it was an excellent event but it was only able to go some way to raising awareness of the need to significantly improve heart failure care because:

·         Who knew that heart failure is the reason why Coronary Heart Disease remains the country’s biggest killer?

·         Who knew over 900,000 people in the UK have heart failure, with many more people currently undiagnosed, and the incidence of the disease is increasing?

·         Who knew the NHS spends £625m per annum on treating heart failure, with 70% of this due to hospitalisation?

·         Who knew patients who receive care and support from integrated services and a specialist heart failure team have significantly better outcomes and a better quality of life?

·         Who knew Dr Mark Dancy, national clinical lead for heart failure, believes ‘Every network in the country can deliver heart failure services better and so improve quality of life for patients and the bank balance of the NHS’?

·         Who knew rumour has it that Mark is related to the one and only Hugh Grant? J A fact I found out recently but I digress...

·         Who knew improved quality of care for heart failure patients is now a big priority area for our Cardiac Network?

·         Who knew we are working with two acute trusts in the first instance to redesign acute heart failure care with the intention of sharing and rolling out the learning across the region?

·         Who knew the Network will be providing regular updates on this project, which it is calling Heart Felt Success, via its website and other media in the coming months...

Who knew that the first stage of achieving the service transformation required is all about raising awareness and dissatisfaction with current heart failure services? For those that knew please pass the message on because we need everyone that has a responsibility and involvement in heart failure services to know!