{"id":509463,"date":"2026-06-20T10:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509463\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T10:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:52:12","slug":"clare-councillor-calls-for-cardiovascular-strategy-after-partners-heart-attack-at-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509463\/","title":{"rendered":"Clare councillor calls for cardiovascular strategy after partner\u2019s heart attack at 29"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Clare<\/a> councillor has called on the health minister to publish the National Cardiovascular Policy and Strategy after her partner suffered a heart attack at the age of 29.<\/p>\n

Rachel Hartigan said her determination to see the long-awaited strategy published was reinforced after her partner, Ben Sweeney, suffered a heart attack in January while playing soccer.<\/p>\n

The current cardiovascular policy expired in 2019 and, while the National Review of Cardiac Services was published recently, no implementation plan has yet been put in place.<\/p>\n

Ms Hartigan told the Irish Examiner: \u201cWe are currently operating in a seven-year policy vacuum. We had a national cardiovascular strategy and policy that was in effect from 2010 until 2019, and we\u2019re yet to have an implementation plan for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Ireland, accounting for 27.8% of all deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 80,000 heart and stroke patients are discharged from hospital every year in Ireland, which kind of equates to one every seven minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the country, and early detection and prevention are the two key pieces that I’d like to see improved upon in the country,\u201d Ms Hartigan said.<\/p>\n

While health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill responded to Ms Hartigan\u2019s request, there was \u201cno firm commitment\u201d on when the policy would be published.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her own response, by recognising the scale of the challenge, we should be really encouraged to ask whether there’s more that we can do, and individual programmes are important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to have the National Review of Cardiac Services published now, but a national strategy really provides a clear vision, clear priorities, and accountability, which is what’s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her partner suffered a heart attack, he discovered he had severe familial hypercholesterolaemia. At the age of 29, he underwent an urgent quadruple bypass operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just 29 at the time, and he’s going to be celebrating his 30th birthday this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, there were some early warning signs, but they weren’t necessarily symptoms that would make a young person think that they were at risk of serious heart disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would occasionally experience chest pain, but it was the kind of thing that many of us would brush off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you’re young and you’re leading a busy life and a busy professional life as well, it’s really easy to ignore a lot of those symptoms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Because of their experience, Ms Hartigan has been seeking to raise awareness and encourage early detection.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeart disease doesn’t always look the way people expect it to, it was just a complete shock because nobody expects to be sitting in a hospital and being told that their 29-year-old partner needs quadruple bypass surgery.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a response to Ms Hartigan, the Department of Health said a key priority for the HSE was progressing the implementation of the National Review of Adult Specialist Cardiac Services (NRCS) in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn 16 December 2025, the European Commission published Safe Hearts \u2013 the EU Cardiovascular Plan, a landmark initiative aimed at reducing premature deaths by improving prevention, early detection, and treatment, while also driving innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland\u2019s active role in shaping these policies reflects our ambition to strengthen cardiovascular health outcomes for our population and contribute to a healthier Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister remains fully committed to advancing cardiovascular health at both EU and national level, supporting the implementation of the EU Safe Hearts Plan in Ireland, and the development of a new national cardiovascular plan,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Clare councillor has called on the health minister to publish the National Cardiovascular Policy and Strategy after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[185250,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-509463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-clare-news","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}