Full list: The electorates with the highest rates of a hidden heart disease

Hundreds of thousands of Aussies don’t know they have a heart problem as a Medicare rebate for a life-saving test is about to be axed. Search and see your local area.

Exclusive: The Medicare rebate for a life-saving Heart Health Check is due to cease in June next year and six leading heart organisations are pleading with Health Minister Mark Butler to save it.

Until News Corp and the Heart Foundation campaigned for and won funding for the check up, there was no national screening program for the nation’s biggest killer, heart disease.

Heart Foundation modelling shows 76,500 heart disease related events could be prevented over the next five years with the widespread uptake of Heart Health Checks.

Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute CEO Professor Thomas Marwick. Picture: Supplied

More than 309,000 people have had the check since it was introduced in 2019.

It comes as new analysis has revealed the federal electorates with the most people at risk of heart valve disease and specialists want the Heart Health Check to include an examination to detect it.

In people with the condition, damage to the heart valves caused by ageing causes heart failure, stroke, blood clots, heart rhythm problems and death.

“It’s a real issue that people die from aortic stenosis,” Baker Institute CEO Professor Tom Marwick said.

The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute estimated that in 2021, 500-600,000 Australians were living with heart valve disease – and more than a quarter of a million of these people were unaware.

On Thursday, heart experts will launch a new initiative called Seat Beat at Parliament House in Canberra to draw attention to the problem.

It provides an estimate of the number of people living with identified or undiagnosed heart disease by electorate, based on a combination of census data and known risk factors.

President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac & Thoracic Surgeons Jayme Bennetts said thousands of patients need management for disease they don’t know they have.

The Department of Health is reviewing whether Medicare should continue to fund the Heart Health Check.

Prof Jayme Bennetts President of The Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons, Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Six heart organisations have written to Mr Butler asking him to expand the Heart Health Check to include a test where the GP listens to a patient’s heart through a stethoscope to detect a heart murmur, a sign of heart valve disease.

“To examine the heart properly, you need to undress the patient; it’s more than just waving the stethoscope over somebody’s clothed chest,” Professor Marwick said.

While heart valve conditions are serious, they are increasingly treatable using transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

If they are caught early, a person will not go on to develop heart and lung damage, which can impact heavily on their ability to exercise and live a normal life.

Increased detection and treatment for people 65 years and above could potentially prevent the productivity loss of $117 million due to withdrawal from productive activities in a single year, the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute found.

Mario Moujalli ignored his doctor’s advice to get his heart checked after a heart murmur was detected.

A survey by the Institute found people at risk of heart disease were not being checked by GPs, and many had cholesterol levels that needed managing to prevent heart problems.

Some GP groups are opposed to the Heart Health Check and argue doctors who do the check don’t get paid any more than they would if they carried out the same checks under regular time-based Medicare item numbers for a regular GP consultation.

Mario Moujalli was an Australian Taekwondo Heavyweight champion who for years ignored his doctor’s advice to get his heart checked after a heart murmur was detected.

“I had a young family and a business to run, and I felt all right; I thought it doesn’t sound serious, like I’ll be right mate, I thought,” he said.

He had to pull out of the Taekwondo World Cup in Sydney in 2018 because he didn’t feel well.

“I had pains in my chest. I’d be out of breath if I walked a few metres,” he said.

Eventually he had a procedure to replace his heart valve but he will have long term health problems as a result of the delay.

“I tell my mates now, if you’re not feeling well, don’t leave it,” he said.

Health Minister Mark Butler said “the Government strongly backs the Heart Health Check”.

“Heart disease remains Australia’s largest killer and each day 179 Australians are hospitalised with heart failure,” he said.

“The Department of Health continues to consult with cardiovascular stakeholders, including the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance regarding the Heart Health Assessment items,” he said.

TOP TEN ELECTORATES FOR HEART VALVE DISEASE

Lyne (NSW) 7969

Gilmore (NSW) 7722

Cowper (NSW) 7647

Hinkler (QLD) 7521

Flinders (VIC) 7204

Mayo (SA) 6999

Richmond (NSW) 6957

Sturt (SA) 6953

Mallee (VIC) 6709

Page (NSW) 6670

SYMPTOMS OF HEART VALVE DISEASE

If you have chest pain, neck pain, or arm pain on exertion, a racing heart or feel your heart is skipping a beat, heart palpitations, shortness of breath doing something now that was not an issue in the past, Professor Bennetts Jayme Bennetts said you should go to your doctor for a heart health check.

Originally published as Full list: The electorates with the highest rates of a hidden heart disease