Cardiology
Who are we?
We provide cardiology services across Shropshire, Telford and Mid Wales. The team is led by six consultant cardiologists, with each overseeing general cardiology care of patients and specialising in different areas of cardiology. The consultants are supported by middle-grade and junior doctors from both the local post-graduate deanery and a Royal College of Physicians-sponsored international fellow. In addition, we have nurse specialists in heart failure, cardiac rehabilitation and heart rhythm disorders. Underpinning all of our activity is an excellent Cardio-Respiratory department.
What do we do?
In-patient care
The Princess Royal Hospital provides the bulk of the cardiac facilities with ten dedicated Coronary Care Unit (CCU) beds and an additional 13 cardiology beds. There is no dedicated cardiology bed base at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, however, there is a cardiology consultant presence on the wards each weekday. This is supported by on-call cardiology consultants and robust transfer process for patients who require the cardiology services based at the Princess Royal Hospital. All diagnostic procedures and pacemaker insertions are undertaken locally. Patients requiring treatment with a coronary stent or open-heart surgery are referred onto local centres in Stoke, Wolverhampton or the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Key Info
Contact Us
For general enquiries please contact the hospital switchboard
Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
01743 261000 (switchboard)
Princess Royal Telford
01952 641222 (switchboard)
Interested in working with us?
For more information about vacancies in the Trust please visit our Belong to Something website.
Location
Our service is based at The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and The Princess Royal Hospital Telford.
Associated Wards & Services
Ward 6 (Princess Royal Hospital)
Cardio Respiratory
Out-patient care
Approximately 8000 new out-patients are seen annually within the Trust. We answer all forms of general cardiology questions and offer specialist clinics in Cardio-thoracic Surgery, Electrophysiology and Adult Congenital Heart Disease. There is a Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic that is currently at both Hospitals. Specialist cardiac nurses provide an excellent heart failure service at the Princess Royal Hospital and a Cardiac Rehabilitation service at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. We also have a dedicated heart rhythm disorder clinic run by our arrhythmia specialist nurse.
Consultant-led outreach cardiology clinics are provided at Newtown, Oswestry, Bridgnorth and Whitchurch Hospitals. An outreach community echocardiography service is also provided by our Senior Cardiorespiratory Physiologists in Oswestry under the close support of the Consultant Cardiology body.
Invasive cardiology service
Invasive diagnostic cardiac catheterisation, complex device (i.e. implantable cardiac defibrillator and cardiac resynchronisation therapy) and bradycardia-pacemaker implantations are undertaken in our dedicated cardiac catheter laboratory at the Princess Royal Hospital; supported by a dedicated cardiology day-case unit.
Cardiac Imaging service
Our Cardio Respiratory department is staffed by a team of committed and experienced Physiologists, the majority of whom have British Society of Echocardiography accreditation. It operates as a single team that works across both Hospitals. It is equipped with echo machines supporting 3D-echo, trans-oesophageal echocardiography, Dobutamine stress echocardiography and contrast echocardiography. The department has a reputation for excellence and is one of only five in the United Kingdom to have been awarded Advanced-level Departmental Accreditation by the British Society of Echocardiography.
The Trust has a well-established Cardiac CT service. This allows us to image the blood supply to the heart without the need for a more invasive procedure and is particularly suitable for lower-risk patients. In addition, the Trust provides a Cardiac MRI service. This state-of-the-art imaging will allow more precise assessment of people’s hearts for many of the inherited heart muscle conditions which are increasingly in the headlines (e.g. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy).
Teaching
The department provides Cardiology teaching for Keele undergraduate medical students. The course is one of the most highly rated in the country by its own students.