Cardiac services

Community

Community Heart Failure Nurse Specialist
Providing supportive care for patients with a diagnosis of heart failure in Croydon.

For referral details see here.

Community Cardiac Nurse Specialist Team
Delivering evidence based, individualised holistic care to patients recovering from an acute cardiac event or intervention.

For referral details click here

Acute

One Stop Heart Failure Clinic
Clinic held every Wednesday afternoon and is run by a visiting heart failure team from Dr Sharma’s team at Kings College Hospital, London.

Aim to see patients in a single appointment, providing rapid feedback to referring clinicians with the formulation of a treatment plan.

Please use referral form on the right of this page

Direct Access Echo Cardiology

Cardiology offer direct access Echo Services to GPs who have patients with asymptomatic murmurs, patients with mild valve lesions, and those with hypertension or atrial fibrillation and require on going advice for their management and treatment plans in primary care.

Direct access will enable diagnosis and discharge for the majority of this cohort of patients where management in primary care is appropriate.

Please use the referral frms on the right of this page.

Referral Criteria

The following indications may be considered for Direct Access:
·         Asymptomatic murmurs.
·         Follow up of known mild valve abnormalities.
·         Atrial fibrillation to evaluate thrombo-embolic risk and evaluate left ventricular function.
·         Hypertension to evaluate possible hypertrophy.
·         To exclude Cardiomyopathy.

Patients in the following situations are unlikely to be suitable for DA echo referral:

Clinical suspicion of heart failure( Heart Failure Pathway).
Clinical suspicion of endocarditis ( Outpatient Cardiology Referral).
Signs or symptoms of significant valve disease (Outpatient Cardiology Referral).

Pathway

· Patients with suspected heart failure should be investigated with BNP using the existing Heart Failure Pathway and One Stop Heart Failure Clinic at CUH.
· Patients with severe abnormalities on echo will be booked directly into a cardiology clinic or be seen by the appropriate acute cardiology service at CUH.