National Heart Failure Audit: 2022 Summary report

The National Heart Failure Audit (NHFA) which is part of the National Cardiac Audit Programme (NCAP), has published its latest summary report. Based on data from April 2020 to March 2021, it summarises the key findings from the audit and deals with a specific and crucial phase in the disease trajectory of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure (HF) in England and Wales. The report found that there was a 10% improvement in the number of hospitals achieving the 90% or greater prescription of beta-blockers for HFrEF patients. Other key findings, compared to 2019/20, include:

• 65% of hospitals achieved specialist review rates of over 80%, an increase of 4%
• In-patient mortality of 9.2% and 1-year mortality of 39% were the same as for 2019/20 (30-day mortality rose slightly)
• Median length of stay (LOS) fell from 9 days to 8 days in cardiology and for those seen by specialists (but a shorter LOS may compromise patient stability pre-discharge)
• Older people continued to have more limited access to diagnostics, life-saving drugs and specialist care at levels seen in previous years.

It also found that 48% of hospitals achieved an echocardiography rate of 90% or more, a decrease of 13%. As such, the report recommends that hospitals not achieving the recommended standard of the use of in-patient echocardiography for patients with acute heart failure should urgently review their clinical pathways and ensure that echocardiography is performed (ideally within the first 48 hrs of admission). Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the link below. Stay-up-to-date: For notifications of future reports from HQIP, sign up to our mailing list.