Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter. As the Minister of State will be aware, yesterday was World Heart Day and it was fitting that in Brussels the heart failure policy network launched a policy toolkit to tackle heart failure. The aim of the heart failure policy network is to create a lasting network of politicians working with other stakeholders to lead significant policy changes to improve the lives of people with heart failure in Europe. Ireland has two representatives on the network, myself and Niall Johnson, the chief executive of Croí, the west of Ireland cardiac foundation, an organisation which undertakes excellent work in the region.

The Minister of State will already know that heart failure is a chronic condition that often requires inpatient hospital treatment. It occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body's need for oxygen and important nutrients. The condition affects at least 15 million adults across Europe and one in five people is at risk of developing the condition. In Ireland, over 90,000 individuals live with the condition, which is responsible for between 600 and 700 deaths annually. Most important is the increasing prevalence of the condition, with thousands of new diagnoses each year. In fact, heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalisation among those over 65 throughout Europe and accounts for 5% of all acute hospital admissions. Unsurprisingly, this is a condition which has a huge negative impact on people's lives and on quality of life.

For too long heart failure has been the forgotten condition in health policies, despite the economic impact on health care and the terrible burden caused by people with the condition. However, we can change this and the policy toolkit provides ten priority actions backed up by clinical evidence and the views and experiences of patients and it sets out the economic case for change. We need to make heart failure a national health priority. We can do this by establishing a national strategy, increasing public and clinician awareness of the condition and investing in reliable data to support policy decisions. We also need to ensure timely diagnosis, which can be achieved by providing specific training for medical staff. We need to introduce multidisciplinary person-centred care which would include treatment plans that were consistent and available nationally, dedicated follow-up care with specific points of contact for patients and outpatient care to help avoid further hospital admissions. All patients with heart failure should be offered a personalised long-term care plan to help them manage their condition and we need to expand primary care to include medical staff trained in heart failure in order to facilitate care for people in their communities.

I welcome the work that has already been undertaken with the heart failure programme. The objectives and aims of that programme readily complement the heart failure networks and the programme is certainly going in the right direction. However, the most recent update of the programme was in 2012 and while some hospitals were taking part, they are mainly located on the east coast. I firmly believe that, with a renewed effort, we can successfully meet the challenges posed by heart failure. I attended the launch of the policy toolkit in Brussels yesterday and a wide variety of politicians and clinicians from across Europe were present. This is not an issue that is peculiar to Ireland but is common throughout European and the condition impacts upon some 15 million people. Patients from Italy and France who had suffered heart attacks and heart failure and who were not given any follow-up or long-term personalised care plans spoke about their conditions. There is a great need to develop the toolkit strategy and we have a marvellous opportunity to do so.

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