Heart failure costs state €660m per year; local care ‘would cut costs’

Heart failure, which costs the State at least €660m every year, could be largely managed in the community but GPs do not have access to the necessary resources, according to the HSE’s national clinical lead for heart failure.

Consultant cardiologist Ken McDonald said that, ideally, GPs should be able to send blood samples to the local hospital where they could be assessed for heart failure (HF) — there is a specific test to help detect heart failure — but that this was only possible “in about one third of cases”.

“It’s either not done in the local hospital or it’s not available to GPs,” said Prof McDonald.