Cardiology (Acute)

The service provides specialist care for patients presenting with:

The service in detail

The cardiology service offers both inpatient and outpatient services for all aspect of cardiology. There are five consultants and five trainee speciality doctors who are supported by five specialist nurses in hospital and four in the community. Our local cardiologists participate in the Primary Percutaneous Intervention rota for the Black Country and perform elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) weekly.

Locally a whole array of invasive and non-invasive investigations are offered, such as Cardiac catheterisation, Trans Oesophageal Echo, Pacemakers, Flecainide /Adenosine challenge, Echo, Holter monitoring, and loop recorder implantation. We have in-house close links for advanced cardiac imaging with SPECT scanning CT Coronary Angiography and soon, Cardiac MRI.

Ward 7 on hospital route 231 is a five-bedded monitored Acute Cardiac Unit with a further 18 bedded ward and additional ten mobile monitoring available.

Within the acute setting, the service has a Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurse, an Acute Coronary Syndrome Nurse and also Acute Heart Failure and Cardiac Arrhythmias nurses.

Also offered are urgent outpatient referral slots (rapid access criteria-based clinics) for acute physicians or GPs to refer patients that they are concerned about to avoid hospitalisation. The Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurse and the Acute Coronary Syndrome Nurse both aim to see all patients who have had revascularisation at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust here at Walsall for a full lifestyle and medication review with pre-emptive Cardiologist case note review.

A nurse-led cardioversion service for Atrial Fibrillation is also carried out within the cardiac Intervention Suite every Friday.

Any patients requiring tertiary services are referred predominantly to Royal Wolverhampton Heart and Lung services and the University Hospital Birmingham.