Cardiology

Our Cardiac Unit is a leading centre for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with a wide range of heart conditions.

The Unit has a strong reputation for providing high standards of surgical, paramedical and nursing care to patients across Coventry, Warwickshire and beyond. Building on its success and in order to meet increasing demands for the Unit's services, further major investment has been made in the Unit which has enabled further expansion of specialist services, the appointment of additional internationally renowned consultants and the development of highly skilled specialist nurses.

For information on the Cardiac Rehabilitation Programme, click here.
For information on the Heart Failure service, click here.

COVID-19 information for Heart Failure Patients

The UHCW Heart Failure team working across Coventry and Rugby acknowledge that you may be concerned about Covid-19 if you have a confirmed diagnosis of Heart Failure.

We continue to work for our Heart Failure Patients to ensure that you all receive safe and effective care despite the challenging circumstances.

Shielding and Social Distancing

Heart Failure Patients have been advised to shield or practice social distancing by the government.

The British Heart Foundation have summarised information about “what it means for you”.

Please follow this link for more information.

Appointments

If you have an upcoming clinic appointment with your Cardiologist or Heart Failure Nurse, you should assume that you DO NOT need to attend in person.

You will receive notification that this will now be conducted virtually over the telephone. In exceptional circumstances, if a after a telephone review, it is felt that you definitely need to be seen in person, you may be asked to attend the City of Coventry Health Centre for a face to face clinic.

If hospital treatment is necessary and you need admission on our cardiology ward it is useful for you to know that our ward has temporarily moved from ward10 to ward 42.

Ward 42 is fully operational to provide the safest cardiology care possible, and we will aim to discharge you as soon as possible with follow up care in the community setting.

Blood tests

You may be asked to have a blood test, this can be arranged at your home depending on your risk, or attending your usual blood taking department.

We would advise pre-booking your blood test to avoid waiting longer in these locations. We understand patients are anxious about attending for blood tests, but for some patients the risk of harm from not having blood test monitoring is higher than the likelihood of contracting the virus.

We will only ask you to have a blood test if it is absolute necessary.

Heart Failure Medications

It is especially important for you at this time to take your prescribed medications regularly and not run out of supply of these lifesaving drugs.

You may have read articles in the press or social media that some Heart Failure and high blood pressure medications such as Angiotensin Converting Enzyme inhibitors (ACEi or medicines ending in ‘pril’) and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARB or medicines ending in ‘sartan’) could worsen Covid-19.

There is currently no evidence to support this speculation. We therefore advise you to continue these medications, as they are essential for the treatment of your Heart Failure or high blood pressure. This advice is supported by and in keeping with the advice from the following learned societies:

Self-Management

During the Covid-19 outbreak we would advise you to be vigilant in checking your Heart Failure Symptoms daily. Please refer to your Red, Amber and Green symptom guide given to you when you first met your Heart Failure Nurse.

This includes the following:

Weighing yourself
Checking for any increase in swelling in your feet, ankles, legs and abdomen
If you have a blood pressure machine you could chart your blood pressure and heart rate once a day to report to health professionals for telephone reviews
Monitor if you are more short of breath on exertion.

If you notice any deteriorating symptoms of Heart Failure it is important to report this to your Heart Failure Nurse, or GP, or out of hours phone 111. Early action may help to keep you out of hospital.

Pumping Marvellous has produced this symptom guide for more information.

Contact Details

Coventry Community Heart Failure Nurses – 0300 3032444

Rugby Heart Failure Nurses – 01788 663944

UHCW Acute Heart Failure Nurses – 02476 965814

Services

Our Cardiac department is a leading centre for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with a wide range of heart conditions. We specialise in areas such as:

Arrhythmia
Cardiac Imaging
Cardiac Research
Congenital Heart
Heart Failure
Obstetric Cardiology
24/7 PPCI service

Our department includes a team of Cardiac Nurse Practioners who are based in ED to assess and review cardiac patients, a 26-bedded Cardiology ward, 10-bedded Coronary Care Unit, and a three-bedded, six-trollied Cardiology Day Unit plus a newly refurbished six-chair Radial Lounge for elective patients. Integral to the department is our team of Cardiac Physiologists performing diagnostic tests for outpatients and inpatients from all areas.

We have four permanent cath labs at our Coventry site and a mobile cath lab at our Hospital of St Cross site. Within these labs we perform such procedures as:

Diagnostic Angiograms, Left and Right Heart Caths
Percutanious Cardiac Intervention – CTO/Rotablation/IVUS/OCT
Primary PCI 24/7 for heart attack patients
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI)/Balloon Aortic Valvuplasty
Permanent Pacemakers and Devices - Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy (CRT-P/CRT-P), ICD therapy
Electrophysiology Studies and ablation including , AF, SVT, VT ablation and Cryo ablation

We pride ourselves on supporting and developing all professions within the department. We have specialist nurses in:

Arrhythmia
Adult Congential Heart Disease
Cardiac Rehab
Cardiac Research
Heart Failure
Injectable Loop Recorder Nurse Implanters

We are constantly looking for ways to improve and develop the service provided and are often looking for new, dynamic people to join our ever-expanding team.