During the reception, I met patients and clinicians, before signing the Don’t Fail on Heart Failure pledge, committing to support patient access to treatments and technology that save lives. The full text of the pledge is below.
Immediately after the reception, the Heart Failure pledge was delivered to the Department of Health.
Untreated, heart failure has a survival rate similar to cancer - and over a third die within
1 year of diagnosis.
NICE is appraising availability of ICD and CRT-D devices in January.
I am determined to help heart failure patients in Makerfield get the treatment they need to live their lives. The implantable devices I saw today take people from constant fatigue back into work. The NHS needs to make sure these life-enhancing technologies are available for those who need them.
A person has heart failure if their heart is unable to pump sufficient blood to meet their body’s needs. Causes range from hypertension to a heart attack to a virus. Patients suffering heart failure develop increasing breathlessness and fatigue when carrying out daily activities – and ultimately at rest. Consequently, ability to work is greatly impaired along with health and quality of life. Heart failure eventually affects 3 in every hundred women, and 4 in every hundred men. Heart failure imposes huge costs on the NHS. It accounts for 5% of all emergency hospital admissions and 2% of all NHS hospital bed days.
Patients who received CRT-Ds and ICD implants had a death rate 25% to 45% lower than those who instead took the best available drugs. For patients with mild to moderate heart failure, ICDs and CRT reduced monthly admission rates to hospital by 20% to 35%.
AS one of the Patients that spoke at the meeting, I am rather disappointed by the press release.
ReplyDeleteThe quote "The implantable devices I saw today take people from constant fatigue back into work" is totally wrong not everybody is able to return to work and the constant fatigue remains, for many including myself the "Implanted Device" is just making my quality of life better, It is by no means a cure, as there is no cure, other than a Heart Transplant in many cases, The trip to the Houses of Parliament was suppose to be a positive step for us but press articles like this only make our situation worse and proves that this government will spin anything. I feel very let down after all the effort and energy I spent travelling to London.