Life-saving heart operation now being offered on site at the Trust
Cardiologists at the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB) can now fit the sickest heart failure patients with life-saving cardiac devices on site at the Royal Derby Hospital.
The Trust’s Heart Centre launched its complex cardiac device service back in April and 18 patients have so far benefitted from cardiac resynchronisation pacemakers and implantable defibrillators as a result.
Before the new service was granted approval by NHS England, patients from Derbyshire and East Staffordshire had to be transferred to tertiary cardiac surgical centres in Nottingham, Leicester or Stoke for the procedure.
Providing this service at the Royal Derby Hospital will therefore allow patients to receive their treatment quicker and easier, while it will also allow the Trust to prioritise offering the procedure to local people.
Clinical Lead for Cardiology Dr Damian Kelly said: “Cardiac resynchronisation pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are vital treatments that prolong and improve the lives of patients with a wide range of heart conditions. We are now able to implant these devices in Derby, thus improving access and reducing waiting times. We are delighted that the sickest cardiac patients can now enjoy prompt treatment at the Royal Derby Hospital, without the need to travel or be transferred to other centres.”
Before the establishment of the new service, which was created in partnership with Nottingham University Hospitals, UHDB Consultant Cardiologists Dr Nauman Ahmed and Dr Rob McIntosh fitted around 150 cardiac devices a year in Stoke and Nottingham.
Cardiac resynchronisation pacemakers and implantable defibrillators save the lives of patients with heart failure by relieving breathlessness and restarting the heart of a patient, while they have also been shown to reduce hospital readmission for heart failure by 50%.
Royal Derby Hospital patient Charles Coates, 66, was fitted with the cardiac device in June, to aid his recovery following a heart attack last November.
Mr Coates, of Willington, said: “The service was absolutely outstanding and I can’t praise everyone involved in my care highly enough. This really is the best I’ve felt in years; everybody has been impressed by the change they’ve seen in me since the operation. It’s absolutely a great thing that patients can now have this procedure at the Royal Derby Hospital, rather than having to travel elsewhere. I had my operation at 2pm and was home by 7pm. You just want the surgery to be done there and then; you really don’t want any delays, so having the procedure locally really made the whole process so much easier.”