• Heart Failure is a life limiting condition with significant mortality despite advances in medical therapy ¹.
  Approximately 80% of people with heart failure get diagnosed only after requiring hospitalisation for decompensation².
  Admissions for heart failure are associated with a 9.2% inpatient mortality³ and those who are diagnosed following a hospital admission have significantly worse outcomes and a higher mortality than those who are diagnosed in primary care⁴.
• We know that early initiation of guideline directed medical therapy has benefit in terms of patient symptoms, morbidity and mortality. The majority of costs associated with heart failure are accrued further to inpatient episodes, particularly when patients approach the end of life⁵.
• Primary care is the best place and most appropriate place to detect undiagnosed people with heart failure and, at the earliest opportunity, facilitate implementation of evidence-based interventions.

1. Taylor, C (2019). Trends in survival after a diagnosis of heart failure in the United Kingdom 2000-2017: population based cohort study. BMJ 2019;364:l223. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l223
2. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence 2021 Impact report: https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/into-practice/measuring-the-use-of-nice-guidance/impact-of-our-guidance/nice-impact-cardiovascular-diseasemanagement
3. NICOR (2021) National Heart Failure Audit - Summary Report 2020-21 https://www.nicor.org.uk/heart-failure-heart-failure-audit/
4. Lawson C, Zaccardi F, Squire I et al (2019) 20-year trends in cause-specific heart failure outcomes by sex, socioeconomic status, and place of diagnosis: a population-based study. The Lancet Public Health 4(8):406 – 420
5. Hollingworth et al (2016). The health care costs of heart failure during the last five years of life: A retrospective cohort study. International Journal of Cardiology. VOLUME 224, P132-138, DECEMBER 01, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2016.09.021

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