Heart failure concerns of MEP

Louise Bours, North West UKIP MEP

Concerns over failure by some health authorities to provide a simple heart failure test which could save the NHS £3.8 million have been raised by local MEP Louise Bours.

Early diagnosis of heart failure greatly improves outcomes for patients and saves the health service money with reduced hospital referrals, admissions and procedures.

In the wake of a report by the All Parliamentary Group on Heart Disease, which has highlighted the problem, Ms Bours is writing to all the Clinical Commissioning Groups and hospital trusts in the North West.

“I want to know if they provide this test, which measures natriuretic peptide, and if they do not I want to know why not and if the situation is to be reviewed and the test introduced," said Ms Bours, MEP for the North West..

“Heart failure is an extremely debilitating condition which affects at least 400,000 people in England and while many receive excellent care, a third of GPs and hospital trusts do not have access to the testing.

“As well as the unnecessary suffering for patients and their potentially reduced life expectancy, the saving to the NHS resulting from early diagnosis, as estimated by the National institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is tremendous.

“We are all painfully aware how the NHS is buckling under financial restraints. Here there appears to be a fantastic opportunity for long term savings for a relatively small outlay and GPs and individual health trusts must all look at the wider picture,” she said.