SPECIALIST hospital staff are making people more aware of the symptoms of heart failure.
As part of European Heart Failure Awareness Week (6-12 May), staff at the world-renowned Essex Cardiothoracic Centre at Basildon Hospital are asking staff and visitors to bang a drum, symbolic of the noise of a beating heart.
Dr Henry Oluwasefunmi Savage, consultant cardiologist and heart failure lead at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Heart failure is a treatable condition. Advances in research have led to a wide range of therapies that are now available for heart failure patients.
“This has meant better outcomes in these patients. But key to that success – like with treating cancer – is spotting it as early as possible.”
Those symptoms – as highlighted by the British Society for Heart Failure – are fighting for breath, feeling fatigued and fluid retention. People with those symptoms are being advised to speak to their GP to see if it could be heart failure.
