Four years ago when the Alliance produced its Call to Action report, we reported an
astonishing statistic. 80% of heart failure cases in England are diagnosed in hospital, despite
40% of those patients having had symptoms that could have triggered an earlier assessment
in primary care.

I often think about this statistic in my work as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in
Leicestershire. How could we have prevented this person from being hospitalised? How
could this person have been given optimal medical care to improve their quality of life?

Early diagnosis is one of the biggest factors to reducing the growing burden of heart failure.
It reduces hospitalisation, improves the quality of life and dramatically increases a loved
one’s chance of survival.

Primary care professionals are on the frontline of this effort. Working as a heart failure nurse,
I’ve witnessed that even small steps towards better awareness and specialism can make a
dramatic difference.

GPs and Practice Nurses who know how to spot symptoms and order a simple blood test
that can rule out the condition. Pharmacists who understand the big four medications and
can optimise them and work with medications reviews. Healthcare professionals who are
savvy about the condition and know how to work with specialists in secondary care.

But the challenge is also enormous. Heart failure is an incredibly complex condition to
diagnose and treat. The symptoms such as breathlessness and swelling in the ankles are
often confused for other conditions. Interviews with patients have shown they often
“normalise” these symptoms, putting them down to old age or even tiredness.

The Alliance for Heart Failure’s upcoming webinar on February 27th is just the start of what I
hope will be a bigger movement of awareness across the NHS. It brings together some of
the leading specialists in the country and provides practical guidance on how to become
your community’s heart failure champion.

Professor Simon Ray, the National Clinical Director for Heart Disease, will introduce this
initiative, explaining the enormous potential primary care professionals such as yourself can
play in managing the burden of the disease. You’ll hear from Nick Hartshorne-Evans, a
brilliant patient advocate who will explain better than anyone the difference primary care
professionals can play in helping heart failure patients.

Then you’ll hear from a range of specialists – from GPs to pharmacists. They’ll talk you
through the pathway – from diagnosis to treatment and management – explaining what you
need to know to ensure a patient receives the right care at the right time.

If even one primary care professional comes away with a better understanding of the
symptoms and the pathway – knowledge that may well help them one day avoid a poor
patient outcome – then I know we’ll have succeeded. I hope you can join us and be one of
those people.


Apply to attend our webinar


This webinar has been organised by 3:nine Consulting on behalf of the Alliance for Heart
Failure. Astrazeneca, Medtronic, Novartis, and Novo Nordisk have provided sponsorship
to 3:nine Consulting to cover the costs of developing and running the webinar.
Astrazeneca, Medtronic, Novartis, and Novo Nordisk have had no influence over the
meeting agenda or arrangements.

Louise Clayton, February 2025