Heart services (cardiology)

About the team

The MCH Cardiology team provide a wide range of Cardiology care across Medway through 5 specialist services:

The Arrhythmia service

The Arrhythmia service assists with the diagnosis and treatment of people with abnormal heart rhythms, such as, atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia and heart blocks.

People diagnosed with atrial fibrillation are at a higher risk of stroke, therefore, the arrhythmia service has a large focus on managing atrial fibrillation and stroke prevention. The arrhythmia nurses can risk assess these patients and request anticoagulation (blood thinning) therapy if appropriate.

The service is delivered by a specialist nursing team

Clinics are held at various locations throughout Medway but home visits are also available to patients who are unable to attend clinic venues.

Cardiac Rehabilitation

The Cardiac rehabilitation team facilitate people to have the best quality of life following diagnosis of heart attack, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, angioplasty (stents), or had coronary bypass surgery or open heart valve surgery; by providing support and education and where appropriate cardiac rehabilitation classes.

This service is this is delivered by a team consisting of specialist nurses, exercise physiologists and assistants

The Cardiac rehab service aims to see patients in hospital after heart attack and in clinic/home if required. People are assessed to determine whether each individual would benefit from group exercise, education classes, education and advice.

Cardiology Diagnostic service

The non urgent cardiology diagnostics service provides twenty four hour blood pressure monitoring, five day cardiac event recorders, and twelve lead ECGs to the community. All test results are returned to referrer for interpretation.

The service is delivered by technicians.

Clinics are held at various locations throughout Medway but home visits are also available to patients who are unable to attend clinic venues.

Cardiology Heart Failure service

The heart failure team helps people with a type of heart failure known as Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction /left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) to have the best quality of life; by helping people understand their condition, addressing symptoms, ensuring optimisation of medication and advising on beneficial lifestyle changes as well as support individuals at the end of their life.

The service is delivered by a specialist nursing team

Clinics are held at various locations throughout Medway but home visits are also available to patients who are unable to attend clinic venues.

The heart failure service also co-ordinates a heart failure diagnostic service for GPs.

Anti-coagulation/Warfarin service

The anti-coagulation service provides a one stop shop monitoring service for people who require INR /Warfarin monitoring for more than 1 year.

The service is delivered by nurses/associate practitioner and assistants.

Clinics are held at various locations throughout Medway but home visits are also available to patients who are unable to attend clinic venues.

How to refer

Arrhythmia team:

GP or external referrals to Cardiology Arrhythmia Team

email referral form medch.communitycardiology.nhs.net

Cardiac rehab team:

GP or external referrals to [Cardiac rehab] Team

email referral form medch.communitycardiology.nhs.net

Cardiology diagnostics

GP or external referrals to Cardiology diagnostics Team

GP gives patient the referral form and patient calls single point of access number to make an appointment.

Heart failure team:

GP or external referrals to heart failure team

email referral form medch.communitycardiology.nhs.net

Anticoagulation/warfarin team:

GP or external referrals to Anticoagulation/warfarin Team

email referral form to medch.mas@nhs.net