The Irish Medical Times - A call for compassion – heart and stroke patients deserve more support
It’s highly unlikely anyone would want to take part in a marathon that failed to provide most of these staples. Would a city even be allowed to sanction such a dangerous Terrordome event? If they did, social media would take them down one dehydrated selfie at a time.
We can speculate that city officials would not allow a runner to attempt the event without supports in place. The same government should not stand by and watch patients flounder as their supports are pulled.
In Ireland well over half a million people are living with a cardiovascular condition (comprising heart disease and stroke).
Did you know that every 90 minutes someone in Ireland has a heart attack or stroke?
Every 50 minutes someone is diagnosed with heart failure?
And every 7 minutes a heart or stroke patient is discharged from hospital?
Discharged patients are left to rely strongly on themselves and those around them to cobble together a plan for their new existence. Not everyone can pull together sufficient resources to cope. Even if you are physically coping very well, you might be suffering emotionally, or if you are mentally in a good spot, there may be another part of your life falling short.
In response, the IHF provides practical pathways of support to foster a sense of progress and regaining control for those who need some help and direction. IHFs services have an impact beyond the patient, they reduce hospital admissions and in turn ease the pressure on frontline staff. The HSE actively refers patients to the IHF on discharge, for psychological support in particular as this is something greatly lacking for heart and stroke patients countrywide.
The State does contribute to the IHF, but their funding only makes up something in the region of 10% the IHFs annual budget, creating a strong reliance on donations and fundraisers, which by their nature are unreliable forms of income.
If the government fails to sufficiently support the IHF, then vital services will get pulled from over 7,000 heart and stroke patients in Ireland. Inevitably, those patients will return back to the State facilities over and over looking for support that is not on offer, clogging up hospital beds, resources and GPs, costing the State and the taxpayer even more money, with nothing more than bad headlines to show for it.
With advance detection, and people living longer lives, incidents of heart and stroke issues are escalating. As well as a focus on the acutely unwell, there needs to be investment in keeping patients well, living their best lives and progressing in their recovery.
The IHF does a lot more than hold people’s hands, they teach recovering patients how to counsel the newly diagnosed, providing a sustainable form of patient peer support. The charity supports and promotes in-person support groups - patients helping patients. They have a newly developed Patients Champion programme where volunteers are educated on how to work alongside politicians and medics to foster change. They show those in need basic kindness with free nurse helplines and free professional counselling.
When I left hospital after my heart failure diagnosis, the nurse sent me home with information leaflets produced by the Irish Heart Foundation. It was a fountain of knowledge for me, answering questions I didn't even know to ask. They were a gateway to the IHFs online presence where I found online support, information sessions, even exercise classes.
In April this year the IHF rallied the troops, gathering patients and politicians to discuss the dire need for more government funding. They asked politicians to sign a pledge to fight for funding for the IHF. They launched newspaper campaigns, took to the airwaves, met as many patients and their politicians as possible. The IHF kept the pressure on over the coming weeks with patients petitioning their politicians and progress was made with a large number of politicians signing the pledge to fight for more funding. There was even an impromptu cardiac cross party group set up within the Dail to be a conduit for cardiovascular matters.
The Department of Health took little notice and unfortunately swatted the matter aside. Perhaps simple maths will make the point - the IHF is running a national support service for the biggest patient cohort in the country, it costs €1.24 million a year to operate the service, government funding for the patient service is €130,000 a year (other monies from government are for health awareness campaigns, not patient support), this works out at €19 per patient head. Not to put a price on your continuing health, but it sounds like the government thinks about 20 quid should cover it!
The very bleak conclusion is that the IHF has been making up the shortfall in funding by running down its reserves. If this persists it cannot guarantee the continuation of services for patients beyond the end of 2024. If you won’t let a person run a marathon without reaching out for a cup of water and a banana, surely you won’t let a heart/stroke patient be discharged without a place to reachout to.
To quote the great Joni Mitchell…
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘till it’s gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
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