TWO in three patients with heart failure are being missed by GPs.

A damning study reveals more than 100,000 cases a year are being picked up late — only after sick Brits end up in hospital.

Delayed treatment dramatically cuts survival, with experts saying the crisis is being fuelled by the NHS target culture.

Some 20 per cent of patients diagnosed by their GP die within a year, but the risk rises to 36 per cent if the illness is spotted in hospital.

Around 920,000 Brits have heart failure — with 190,000 new cases picked up each year.

But despite a push to identify sufferers early, GPs are now less likely to spot the symptoms.

Just 36 per cent of cases were identified by family medics in 2014 — compared with 56 per cent in 2002. The British Heart Foundation-funded study by Oxford University reveals a GP bonus scheme may be partly to blame.

Lead researcher Nathalie Conrad told the European Society of Cardiology conference in Munich: “It could be that it is due to GP workload increase, maybe they don’t have time to pick up these things.”

Cardiologist Professor Martin Cowie, from Imperial College London, said GPs were too worried about cancer, dementia and mental health.

He said: “We are failing patients. This is a medical emergency. We need to wake up and get our house in order.”