A novel treatment for heart failure — one of nine drugs caught up in a dispute over funding earlier this year — is available from today to Irish patients under the State’s reimbursement scheme.

While there is hardly a day goes by when the HSE doesn’t come in for some media criticism, I should like to remind your readers that on the shop floor, as it were doctors, nurses and ancillary staff are working flat out to deliver the best service possible to their patients.

The burgeoning obesity epidemic among the Irish is storing up serious heart health problems for the future, according to a leading cardiologist.