Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce unplanned admission rates for heart failure.
NHS England is working with key partners to ensure better co-ordination and integration of all services with the aim of delivering person centred and coordinated care for both men and women, which is tailored to their individual needs and preferences and those of their carer and family.
To support clinicians in the diagnosis and management of heart failure, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published Chronic Heart failure in Adults: Management, and Acute Heart Failure: Diagnosis and Management.
Both sets of guidance highlight the importance of specialist multidisciplinary heart failure teams in the management of patients in order to provide an integrated approach to patient care that is available both in hospital and in the community. The NICE guidance can be found at the following links:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg108/resources/chronic-heart-failure-in-adults-management-35109335688901
To encourage better practice in the caring for heart failure patients, NHS England has established a best practice tariff for non-elective admissions for heart failure to support improved adherence to NICE guidance.