Service overview - Cardiology
Our cardiology teams provide medical care to patients who have heart or circulation problems. Patients are treated on either an inpatient or outpatient basis.
Outpatient: a short visit to hospital that lasts no more than a day.
Inpatient: hospital visit that requires at least one night's stay on a ward.
Typical procedures performed in the cardiology department include the following:
- Electrocardiogram (ECG) and exercise tests to measure heart function.
- Echocardiograms (ultrasound scan of the heart).
- Scans of the carotid artery in your neck to determine stroke risk.
- 24-hour blood pressure tests.
- Insertion of pacemakers.
- Cardiac catheterisation (coronary angiography) to see if there are any blocks in your arteries.
- MRI scans.
- Myocardial perfusion scans.
- Radionuclide tests.
Video appointments
Many of our services offer video calls as a more convenient way of having an appointment with one of our healthcare professionals. This reduces the need for you to attend the hospital physically.
If you have an appointment letter with a video appointment link and instructions, please read more on our Video appointments page.
The 'F' word (heart failure)
Dr Henry Oluwasefunmi Savage MD MRCP CAS-HF (Zurich) consultant cardiologist and heart failure lead at the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre features in a video about heart failure.
You can read more about the campaign at the BSH website https://www.bsh.org.uk/the-f-word.
Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC) services
Cardiothoracic services are provided from the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC) at Basildon Hospital. The CTC provides services for people living in Essex and accepts referrals from outside the county.
Services provided here include:
- Cardiovascular surgery including minimal access valve surgery
- Dedicated consultant anaesthetic team
- Specialist perfusion service
- Thoracic surgery
- Interventional cardiology including angioplasty
- Rotablation
- PFO (patent foramen ovale) closure
- Electrophysiology including AF ablation
- Cardiac devices implantation and management, single and dual pacemakers
- Arrhythmia management
- Diagnostics and imaging such as TTE, TOE, DSE and contrast echo
- Consultant-led critical care and high dependency facilities
- Outpatient facilities
- Rehabilitation including a gym
- Heart failure service
- Grown up congenital heart disease
- Access to cardiac CT, PETCT and lung function testing
- Primary angioplasty.
Rapid access chest pain clinic
This a GP referral-only service for men over 30 and women over 40, who have no previous cardiac history and have had chest pain in the last eight weeks.
Patients are offered an appointment within two weeks of referral.
Referrals
We only accept referrals from GPs. To do this, please send referrals to:
Basildon Hosptial - call 01268 524900.
Broomfield Hospital - fax to 01245 516813.
Southend Hosptial - call 01702 435555 using extension 6091 or 5031.
Day case care
Basildon
If you have persistent atrial fibrillation, diagnostic cardiac catheterisation, coronary angiography, permanent pacemaker implantation, stress echocardiography or transoesophageal echocardiography, you may be offered a range of procedures including day-case cardioversion.
Broomfield
All day-case and stay care is held in the cardiac centre in Zone A210.
Southend
Arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation) and heart failure clinics are held in the Cardiac and Medical Day Stay Unit, located on the ground floor of the Prittlewell Building.
Inpatient care
Basildon
James Mackenzie ward providing inpatient care for patients experiencing all types of acute cardiac problems including acute coronary syndrome (not ST-elevation MI), rhythm or valve disorders and heart failure deterioration.
Our other wards are Thames ward, Chelmer ward, Roding ward and Colne ward.
Broomfield
Broomfield does not currently have any designated cardiac wards.
Southend
Gordon Hopkins ward provides inpatient care for those patients transferred from the Coronary Care Unit (Sita Lumsden ward) and those patients with a more stable cardiac condition.
The Coronary care unit is hosted on Sita Lumsden ward.
For all cardiac wards contact details and locations, visit Our ward information.
Invasive and non-invasive services
We offer both invasive and non-invasive procedures, these include:
Invasive
- Myocardial perfusion scanning.
- Pacemaker insertion.
- Inpatient transesophageal echocardiography (TOE).
Non-invasive services
- Consultant led cardiology outpatient clinics.
- Rapid access chest pain clinic.
- Echocardiography (TTE).
- Pacemaker follow up.
- Exercise tolerance testing.
- 24 hour heart monitoring.
- 7 day event recording.
- Sleep studies.
- DC cardioversion.
- 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG).
- Stress echocardiogram.
Cardiology and respiratory medicine
The diagnosis and treatment for conditions of the heart and lungs at Southend Hospital. Our services include:
Cardiac care unit - treating people who have suffered from a heart attack, patients with pacemakers and problems with irregular heart rhythm.
Heart and chest clinic - a specialist department for outpatients which performs a wide range of tests for people with heart and lung conditions.
To find out more about services we offer for lung care, visit Respiratory medicine services.
Cardiac Rehabilitation
To find out more about our cardiac rehab services and support services, visit Cardiac Rehabilitation Service.
Contact us
Basildon
Arrhythmia nurses - call 01268 524900 using extension 4021.
Location – Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC).
Broomfield
Non-invasive services - call 01245 514185.
Cardiac rehabilitation team - call 01245 516376.
Location – A210.
Southend
For all cardiac wards, please visit Our ward information.
Cardiac and medical day stay - call 01702 435555 using extensions 6424 or 5525 during the hours of 8.30am and 5pm. Located on the ground floor of the Prittlewell Building.
Echocardiography department - call 01702 435555 using extension 8185 during the hours of 4.30am and 5pm. Located on the first floor of Prittlewell Building, next to the heart and chest department.
Heart and chest department - call 01702 435555 using extension 6091 or 5031 during the hours of 8.30am and 5pm. Located on the first floor of the Prittlewell Building.
ICD follow-up clinic - call 01702 385503 during the hours of 8.30a and 5pm. This is located in the CT scan suite on the ground floor of the Prittlewell Building.