Big difference in heart failure mortality rates shown by largest ever audit in England and Wales

The third report from the National Heart Failure Audit, which analysed more than 21,000 patient records, suggests about 32 per cent of heart failure patients will die within a year of their hospital admission. However the mortality rate falls to 23 per cent for those are seen by a cardiologist or have access to specialist heart failure services. In-patient mortality is also twice as likely for a heart failure patient if they are on a non cardiac ward; at 12 per cent compared to 6 per cent. Today's audit report presents the most robust findings to date about patient mortality for heart failure – which affects about one in every hundred people in the UK and rises to one in 15 for those aged 75 and over. Run jointly by The NHS Information Centre and the British Society for Heart Failure and commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), the report focuses on the care of patients with unscheduled admissions to hospital for heart failure in England and Wales between April 2009 and March 2010