National action plan needed to reduce cardiovascular disease
The Heart Foundation and National Stroke Foundation today called for a national action plan to tackle cardiovascular disease (CVD), Australia's biggest killer (34% of all deaths) and - the nation's most expensive disease group to treat, as clearly shown by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report.
Heart Foundation CEO, Dr Lyn Roberts, and National Stroke Foundation CEO, Dr Erin Lalor, said that CVD was a national health priority area in name only.
"There is, as yet, no dedicated plan to improve prevention and management of this group of diseases - heart, stroke and vascular diseases - which collectively account for 18% of Australia's total burden of disease and injury," Dr Roberts said.
"The good news is that the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, has recognised the need for further action and has launched a process of reform that will also help review the current approach to CVD.
"This includes establishing the National Preventative Health Task Force, the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, the COAG preventative health partnership and reviewing the federal CVD programs," Dr Roberts said.
Dr Lalor said: "We strongly support these moves and applaud the Minister for moving forward to examine current CVD programs with a view to addressing gaps and priority areas identified in the national service improvement framework for heart, stroke and vascular disease."
AIHW report - Health care expenditure on cardiovascular diseases 2004-05 - finds:
- Cardiovascular diseases are the most expensive group of diseases in Australia, with allocated direct health care expenditure of $5.94bn in 2004-05, that is 11% of total allocated expenditure.
- Between 2000-01 and 2004-05, inflation-adjusted expenditure on cardiovascular diseases increased by 18%.
- Substantially more is spent on males ($321 per person) than on females ($261 per person). Much of this difference is due to higher rates of cardiovascular disease among males than females. However, some may reflect differences in the diagnosis, treatment, care and course of the disease between sexes.
- Expenditure per person increases with age.
- Spending on hospital-admitted patients accounted for approximately half of all expenditure on cardiovascular diseases. Prescription pharmaceuticals were the next most expensive area of expenditure (28%), followed by out-of-hospital medical services (19%) and research (3%).
"While many exciting advances have been made in cardiovascular health over the past five decades, bringing down CVD death rates from a peak of almost 70% of all deaths in the 1960s, there remain significant gaps in the current approach," Dr Roberts said.
"Death rates continue to decline, but the number of people with CVD is set to increase as the population ages, grows and some risk factors - such as overweight and obesity - become more prevalent.
"With projected expenditure on CVD expected to increase by 105% between 2002-03 and 2032-33, the Heart Foundation and National Stroke Foundation will continue to work closely with the Australian Government to improve the national approach to CVD," Dr Lalor said.
The Heart Foundation and National Stroke Foundation are calling for a comprehensive range of measures put in place, including:
- improved prevention with, for example, an increase in tobacco tax (there has been no real increase for almost a decade); an improved food supply; better support for walking, cycling and public transport; and action to counter our obesogenic environments;
- a comprehensive approach to improving CVD outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who develop CVD and die from it at much higher rates than non-Indigenous Australians;
- better early detection and intervention through a CVD health check;
- better management of patients with CVD in primary care;
- expansion of multidisciplinary care teams for heart failure patients;
- support for clinical guideline development;
- support for education campaigns to help people recognise the warning signs of heart attack and stroke and to understand the importance of getting help fast;
- creation of a national cardiac procedures register; and
- action to ensure the availability of stroke units in hospitals.
"We are confident that the processes set in train over the past 12 months will bring about substantial reform on a number of fronts that will reduce death and suffering from what is a largely avoidable disease," Dr Lalor said.
