The heart failure service at QA hospital provides inpatient and outpatient services for the local population and patients from the Isle of Wight. The team all work within the wider Cardiology team and is led by 5 Consultant Cardiologists, specialising in heart failure, with a team of heart failure specialist registrar’s, 6 Heart Failure Nurse Specialists and a Health Care Support Worker. We also maintain close links with the local community heart failure teams.
The team care for a range of patients including those with a known diagnosis of heart failure, patients under a cardiologist at Portsmouth Hospitals, patients eligible for the fast access heart failure service via their GP and patients with symptoms of heart failure who have either had a heart attack in the past or have a raised NT Pro BNP level in a blood test.
The team provide Outpatient and Inpatient services including consultant and nurse-led clinics as well as education and outreach services. You can find out more about these below.
If your GP suspects you may have heart failure it is likely you will have symptoms (such as breathlessness or leg swelling and fatigue) and you will be asked to have a specialist blood test called NT-pro-BNP. If the results of this supports their suspicion they can refer you to the Fast Access Heart Failure Clinic.
- Consultant led Fast Access Heart Failure Clinic:
- Urgent / Routine Outpatient referral pathways for patients who are suspected of having a new diagnosis of heart failure. Urgent referrals = NT-pro-BNP result of 2000+. Routine referrals = NT–pro-BNP result of 400-1999
- Referrals accepted from GP’s and other specialities.
- At this appointment you can expect to be here for up to 2 hours and will receive and ECG and echocardiogram before being seen by the Consultant team.
- Consultant led heart failure follow up clinic.
- Consultant led Complex device (Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy pacemaker with or without internal cardioverting defibrillator) clinic / procedures.
Nurse led Heart Failure outpatient services consist of three clinics and are run by nurses with the ability to prescribe
- Heart Failure Nurse Specialist (HFNS) OP clinic
- For patients with a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure with complex needs.
- For patients with a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure with complex needs.
- Heart Failure Ambulatory clinic
- This clinic is for patients with a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure and provides more acute heart failure care such as IV diuretics and IV iron infusions in the outpatient setting. You can be referred to this service by your GP, Consultant, or community Heart Failure Nurse Specialist.
- This clinic is for patients with a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure and provides more acute heart failure care such as IV diuretics and IV iron infusions in the outpatient setting. You can be referred to this service by your GP, Consultant, or community Heart Failure Nurse Specialist.
- Complex Devices clinic
- For patients due to have the implantation of a complex device (CRT-p/d) in the outpatient setting.
- one - two weeks prior to their procedure date patients will be seen by a HFNS to go over all the relevant information related to the device, procedure and aftercare.
- Following the procedure patients will also be seen in a joint clinic with the Pacing Physiology approximately 6 weeks later for medication review and pacemaker check.
The Inpatient service offers:
- Heart failure outreach service providing clinical review and heart failure treatment planning. This outreach service is primarily led by the Heart Failure Nurse Specialists who can escalate to more senior clinicians as appropriate.
- Advice/guidance for acute and chronic Heart Failure treatment and therapies.
- Patient / carer education.
- A weekly Heart Failure Inpatient multi-disciplinary team meeting.
- Complex device counselling.
- The team can also advise on appropriate follow up post discharge and, if appropriate, facilitate referral to local community heart failure services.
The inpatient service also oversee the completion of the mandatory national heart failure audit - National Heart Failure Audit (NHFA) - NICOR.
Heart Failure Inpatient service office – C6, C Level
Heart Failure Outpatient clinic room - Cardiology Outpatients – C Level
Located on Cardiology outpatients, C level at QA Hospital.
To contact the nurses led service: Tel: 02392 286714 ext 6714.
For patients attending the NT Pro BNP pathway appointments: Tel: 02392 283103 ext 3103
For patients who have ongoing breathlessness, leg or ankle swelling, or breathing difficulty at night time, please see your general practitioner (GP). The GP may refer you to the established heart failure service. The criteria for referral includes a specialised blood test (BNP).
All referrals to the service are received electronically from your GP. They are then screened by one of the Consultant Cardiologists who specialise in heart failure.
If the referral meets criteria you will be offered an urgent or routine appointment. The Consultant may provide advice and guidance to the Gp or offer an appointment in the outpatients department. If the referral does not represent a potential heart failure diagnosis that is correct it will be returned to the GP.
Please note that this pathway is for patients with suspected heart failure – it does not cover other disease conditions.