Heart Failure Academy: improving diagnosis and patient outcomes

Posted: 12th September 2025

Heart failure (HF) affects around 900,000 people in the UK, and this number is likely to rise, due to an ageing population, more effective treatments, and improved survival rates after a heart attack. Heart failure places a large burden on the NHS, accounting for 1 million bed days per year, 2% of the NHS total, and 5% of all emergency admissions to hospital.

Most people in the UK are diagnosed with heart failure during an acute hospital admission. A recent study showed that 80% of people received their first diagnosis in hospital, even though 40% had previously presented with symptoms when visiting their GP within the past five years. Not only is this traumatic for the individual and a burden on hospitals, but evidence also shows that those diagnosed in an emergency setting have significantly worse outcomes than those diagnosed in primary care.

The Heart Failure Academy, funded by NHS England, is a collaboration across all three Yorkshire and Humber Integrated Care Boards with dedicated support from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber working closely with Pumping Marvellous.

The aim of the Heart Failure Academy is to support healthcare professionals to recognise the signs and symptoms of heart failure, enabling more timely specialist assessment and diagnosis. The outcome being that patients receive the right treatment at the right time, leading to better outcomes for people living with heart failure in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Our innovative map ‘Navigating the heart failure journey’ offers short learning bursts showing how to support someone living with heart failure to live well as their disease progresses.

The dedicated Heart Failure Academy website provides useful resources and tools to support clinicians caring for patients with heart failure as well as information on relevant webinars and study days.

Visit https://www.hfacademy.co.uk/ to find out more

Follow the Heart Failure Academy on X @_HF_Academy_ and BlueSky @hf-academy.bsky.social

Find out more

Get in touch with Project Manager lindsey.hornby@healthinnovationyh.com to find out how you can get involved.