Data recently released by the Department of Health's 33 regional Cardiac Networks illustrate that care for deadly heart conditions in the UK depends upon where you live. For example, many patients suffer from heart failure because the two sides of their heart stop beating together. This can be treated with a simple pacemaker-like device which resynchronises the heart's ventricles.

This treatment is never used unless essential, but in the best-performing cardiac networks, patients are up to twenty times more likely to get the vital implant those elsewhere.

If you need treatment for arrhythmic heart failure, be sure to live in Bedfordshire and not in Warwickshire. Please see the attached chart which lists the implant rates for all the network's regions.

What's wrong with your heart, the plumbing or the electrics?

Being electrical in origin, many heart rhythm disorders can be treated effectively with the minimally invasive implant of an advanced electrical pulse generator - the cardiac pacemaker is a relatively simple example.

Almost half of all deaths from heart disease result from cardiac arrhythmias. Yet nearly all of these are preventable is spotted and treated.

Heart Rhythm Checklist project launched today to get England off the bottom of the European arrhythmia care tables

Government campaigns to prevent blocked arteries have been extremely successful but the Arrhythmia Alliance is now calling for a focus on the other half of heart disease, and today announces the launch of the Arrhythmia Checklist project to give arrhythmia patients a fighting chance.

UK hearts left untreated

There are over 100,000 deaths from arrhythmias in the UK every year, yet there are only 64 heart rhythm specialists in the NHS. So even if a patient is referred to a cardiologist, there is only slim chance that this cardiologist will be expert in the diagnosis and treatment of fatal heart rhythm disorders.

Experts in the UK's Cardiac Networks estimate that over 700 in every million Britons should have an implanted cardiac device to treat a potentially-fatal heart rhythm. Today, fewer than 450 per million actually benefit from such treatments. That means that there are thousands of UK patients currently without, but in need of, an essential treatment for a cardiac arrhythmia. According to data from European monitor, Eucomed, the UK is bottom of the table in Western Europe for such arrhythmia care.

The other half of heart disease

Trudie Lobban, CEO of Arrhythmia Alliance commented, "Half the deaths from heart disease in the UK today will never be prevented by the plumbing of the coronary arteries disease. These problems are important, but we cannot afford to neglect the heart's electrical problems, arrhythmias, the other half of heart disease.

Arrhythmia facts

-- Cardiac arrhythmia is the No. 1 killer in the UK, more so than lung cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined.
-- At least 100,000 people die every year from sudden cardiac arrest resulting from a fatal heart rhythm.
-- 80% of those who die could have been saved by a correct diagnosis and treatment.
-- More than a million people in the UK are affected by heart rhythm disorders.
-- It is consistently in the top ten reasons for hospital admission.
-- Of 800 [check] UK cardiologists only 64 are heart rhythm specialists
-- Patients with a heart rhythm disorder might complain of dizziness, blackouts, breathlessness or palpitations

1. Arrhythmia Awareness Week is coordinated by Arrhythmia Alliance. For more information please see aaaw.
2. Cardiac arrhythmias vary widely in type and severity, as do methods for their diagnosis and treatment. Once diagnosed, however, they can usually be treated effectively with drugs, devices or surgery - or a combination of these.
3. Heart rhythm irregularities should always be checked by a specialist, as an undetected, arrhythmia could prove fatal without warning
4. A sudden cardiac arrest is NOT the same as a heart attack. A heart attack is caused by a blockage of the artery that supplies blood to the heart. A sudden cardiac arrest is caused by an abnormality in the heart rhythm.
5. Arrhythmia Alliance (heartrhythmcharity) is made up of partner charities, SADS UK (sadsuk) and STARS (stars) as well as many other physician, nursing and patient groups.