Ms Esther O'Shea:

As a heart failure patient, as a young patient, I have been on this journey for nine years. The Deputy asked why there is no strategy, no plan and no policy. We are forgotten about because we can be discharged. People have this perception that you can live with this. Yes, you can live with a chronic disease but to live with a chronic disease affects every aspect of one's life. From the minute you wake up in the morning, you are reminded by your pillbox, your home monitors, your weighing scales, and the jug you fill for your restricted fluids. That is most cardiovascular diseases. That is heart failure. Yes, you can live with these diseases but how well patients can live with it needs to depend on the support from the policymakers. Because people are discharged they say, "Oh, they are out in the public now". Somewhere along the line, the patient is caught between the public health nurse or social welfare but a lot of us are not and we are completely in limbo.