Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's likely that today in my electorate around 4,000 people are directly impacted by an illness that's limiting the quality of their life could easily lead to their death within a few years. It's also likely many of them are not aware. That illness is heart valve disease, or severe aortic stenosis, caused when the valves calcify so that they don't close properly. Left untreated, it can lead to heart failure and even death. Calcifying of the arteries can happen to anyone, regardless of diet, and the symptoms—shortness of breath and fatigue—are very often misattributed to getting older. The survival rate, if left untreated, is worse than that of breast cancer.

The good news is that the treatments for severe aortic stenosis are very effective. Transcatheter aortic valve implementation is a procedure where a catheter is placed in an artery in the groin and guided into the heart. The patient is awake during the procedure and does not require intensive care admission or cardiac rehabilitation, and they can return home within 48 hours. I recently met with Amy Davis, from my electorate, to talk about the work Edwards Lifesciences are doing in this area.

The coalition made heart health checks with full Medicare reimbursements part of the MBS in 2019, and this should continue. Having a doctor listen to your heart with a stethoscope should be part of a standard GP visit. I encourage anyone over the age of 65 and anyone with symptoms to speak with their doctor about having a heart health check. A simple listen to your heart by your GP could actually save your life.