NSW heart failure care standards

Cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to the burden of disease in Australia, accounting for approximately 12% of total disease burden. In NSW, cardiovascular conditions remain a leading cause of hospitalisation and health service utilisation, with heart failure representing a significant proportion of this demand alongside coronary heart disease and stroke.

This burden is not experienced equally. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience significantly higher rates of cardiovascular disease hospitalisation compared with non-Indigenous populations, including higher rates of heart failure and coronary heart disease. These disparities reflect ongoing inequities in access to prevention, early intervention, culturally safe care, and continuity of care across the health system.

Additionally, people living in rural and regional NSW continue to experience barriers to specialist services, multidisciplinary care, and ongoing follow-up, contributing to inequities in outcomes and service use.

In response, NSW Health and the broader health system have implemented a range of initiatives to improve coordination and access to heart failure care as part of the Leading Better Value Care Initiative.

These include statewide clinical networks, integrated care programs, and organisational models of care designed to strengthen care coordination across acute, primary, and community settings. Structured approaches to service delivery, including integrated care frameworks and coordinated chronic disease management models (such as 3CI), have been used to support more consistent, person-centred care pathways across the system.

As part of the revised NSW Heart Failure Standards, a Service directory has also been introduced to improve visibility and accessibility of available services, supporting clinicians and consumers to more effectively navigate care pathways across the state.

These factors highlight the importance of a coordinated statewide approach to improve equity, coordination, and continuity of heart failure care across NSW.

Care for people with heart failure often spans multiple settings and providers, including primary care, community services, emergency care, inpatient services and specialist outpatient care. Without clear, shared expectations, variation in clinical practice and care coordination can lead to fragmented care experiences, avoidable hospitalisations and poorer outcomes.

The NSW Heart Failure Standards matter because they:

• support consistent, high‑quality care across NSW
• promote early identification, prevention and risk management
• strengthen continuity and coordination across the care continuum
• embed person‑centred and shared decision‑making approaches
• support improved outcomes, experiences and equity for people living with, or at risk of, heart failure.

Together, the standards provide a common foundation to guide practice, support improvement, and enable more seamless care across the heart failure journey.