Heart attacks kill 10,000 Australians each year and many could be avoided

A new report by Access Economics has revealed that this year 80,000 Australians can expect to be treated in hospital for heart attacks or chest pain - at a cost to the economy of $18 billion and 10,000 people will die from a heart attack.

The study commissioned by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly into the economic costs of Heart Attack and Chest Pain (Acute Coronary Syndrome-ACS) in Australia for 2009, has found a single heart attack costs the nation $280,000 and the costs of chronic chest pain, lost productivity and treatment amounts to $74,000.

Experts say this is an economic burden which could be avoided and more needs to be done to prevent heart attacks and getting sufferers to hospital faster to increase their chances of survival.

Cardiologist Professor Derek Chew from the Heart Foundation, who was a member of the research panel, says more efforts must be made to a promote healthy lifestyle, improving diets and encouraging people to exercise regularly, controlling cholesterol and stopping smoking - he says these measures could reduce the number by as much as 90%.

The $18 billion includes a plethora of costs, from hospital bills through to lost productivity resulting from 90,000 new cases of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) - according to the research there will be an estimated 87,500 ACS events in 2009 - of which approximately 55,000 will be heart attacks and 32,500 chest pain events and most of these (61%) will occur in men.

The report says lost productivity will amount to $3.8 billion, of which $2.3 billion will be the total loss of earnings by ACS patients while they are out of the workforce, and says with an the nation's ageing population, the numbers of ACS and the associated costs will increase further.

By 2020 the total number of people affected is projected to be more than 110,000 and by 2050, 250,000 and Professor Chew says while advances in medical treatments will ensure the majority of these people will be kept alive but he says there remains a "major gap" in the way Australian hospitals treat ACS.

He has called for a national registry to be established which would require hospitals to provide key performance data on how they treat ACS - such a system would cost approximately $15 million to set up, with ongoing annual costs of up to $5 million but Professor Chew says compared to $18 billion a year, this pales into insignificance.

Experts from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and Heart Support Australia, say more should be done to lower the incidence of heart attack and unstable angina, and reduce the gaps in treatment and rehabilitation available, as treatment in the 12 months following an acute coronary incident was critical in returning patients to full health and preventing further attacks - however only 30% of people received or took up the range of care available - this includes rehabilitation, help with returning to work and education about medication.