What we do at Cardiology

Our Cardiology outpatient clinics are located in the following areas:

Cardiac and Neuro Outpatients, E Floor, Jubilee Wing, Leeds General Infirmary

Leeds Chest Clinic, Ground Floor, Martin Wing, Leeds General Infirmary 

Outpatient Department, 1st Floor, Chancellors Wing, St James’s University Hospital

Outpatient Department, Ground Floor, Wharfedale Hospital

For more information, or to change or cancel your appointment, please contact 0113 2064793.

Rapid Access Chest Pain clinics (RACPC) are designed to allow patients with new onset suspected angina to be seen in a consultant cardiology clinic within two weeks. They are not suitable for acute coronary syndrome patients or other emergency cases. They are also not appropriate for patients with previous cardiac investigations or a low chance of a cardiac cause. The RACPC takes place at St James’s, Wharfedale General and Leeds General Infirmary.

Acute inpatient services are based in Jubilee Wing at Leeds General Infirmary:

Ward L14/Cardiac Catheter Labs

Matron: Helen Rowbotham

Senior Sisters: Allison Romaniw and Hilary Copsey

E Floor, Jubilee Wing, Leeds General Infirmary

0113 3927414

Ward L18

Matron: Hannah Graham

Senior Sister: Lisa Gibson

Visiting Hours: 12:00- 20:00

F Floor, Jubilee Wing, Leeds General Infirmary

0113 3927418

Ward L19

Matron: Hannah Graham

Senior Sister: Camilla Smith

Visiting Hours: 12:00- 20:00

F Floor, Jubilee Wing, Leeds General Infirmary

0113 3927419

Ward L20/CCU

Matron: Hannah Graham

Senior Sister: Sarah Jobson

Visiting Hours: 14:00 – 16:00 and 18:00 – 20:00

F Floor, Jubilee Wing, Leeds General Infirmary

0113 3927420

The community cardiac rehabilitation service operates city wide and forms part of the Leeds Cardiac Service. It aims to support patients to understand their cardiac condition, help them to recover from a heart attack or cardiothoracic surgery and reduce the risk of further disease progression.  The service comprises a team of cardiac nurse specialists, along with administrative support.

Medicines play an important role in the management of patients with cardiovascular disease and pharmacy services are a valued contributor to the LTHT cardiology department. The pharmacy team focus on the pharmaceutical care of cardiovascular patients through effective use of medicines. The pharmacy team is made up of pharmacists, technicians and support workers; their job roles involve:

Pharmacists

Specialist Clinical Pharmacists are the experts in medications, possessing unique pharmaceutical knowledge and experience in the care of cardiovascular patients. Pharmacists will clinically review each patient to ensure medicines optimisation. They are directly involved in all aspects of a patients journey in hospital from medication history taking and validating discharge medications.

Pharmacists provides this pharmaceutical care on multi-disciplinary ward rounds, clinics, advising on medication issues to other health professionals through clinical interventions to improve effectiveness and safety of drug use. Pharmacists practice throughout the cardiology department at ward level i.e. CCU, wards (including admissions), clinics and cardiac catheterization laboratory. Pharmacists also have a role in teaching and educating ward staff and most importantly patients.

Pharmacy technicians support the Pharmacists in their role at ward level, mainly through reconciliation and supply of medicines. Some experienced technicians provide patients with counselling and education on newly started medications (such as warfarin). Both technicians and support workers are able to dispense medications at ward level. They use a dispensing robot situated on the admissions ward (L19) so that medicines are prepared advance prior to a patient’s discharge, this also reduces waiting times.

The Pharmacy staff liaise with members of the multidisciplinary team (Nurses, Doctors, dieticians, etc) to ensure a safe, efficient and cost effective service.

The West Yorkshire Arrhythmia Service (WYAS) at the Yorkshire Heart Centre provides a regional population of over 3 million with state of the art facilities for the investigation and treatment of heart rhythm disorders. The team of consultants, arrhythmia nurses and highly specialised cardiac physiologists provide care to patients with palpitations, atrial fibrillation (AF) and life threatening cardiac rhythm problems. The WYAS also provides a comprehensive pacemaker and defibrillator implanting service, as well as a regional service for inherited cardiac conditions (ICC). The WYAS is based at the Leeds General Infirmary. Further information about the service can be found on the dedicated WYAS web site.

Rapid Access AF clinic

The aim of the rapid access AF clinic is to provide the option of sending newly diagnosed AF patients to a “one stop clinic” dedicated to investigating AF and forming individualised care / treatment plans for patients with AF.

The Heart Failure Service in Leeds provides multiple services through a wide ranging team of professionals to patients in Leeds and the wider area. The outpatient clinic provides both diagnosis and management to patients with Heart Failure. The service also offers in-patient support and education through the Heart Failure Nurse Specialists. The team is involved in multiple research projects, aiming to improve the care of Heart Failure patients in the future. The team works closely with the community cardiac nursing team. 

The Leeds CMR service has a strong research basis and is led by Prof Sven Plein and Prof John Greenwood. The service is carrying out ground-breaking research into the clinical applications of CMR for patients with common clinical conditions such as chest pain and heart attack.

The Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility is part of the NIHR Leeds Clinical Research Facility. It is situated adjacent to the routine NHS Cardiology facilities and so is ideally placed to provide an integrated approach to research and standard care for patients for whom consideration of participation in a clinical trial is appropriate. The facility includes exercise physiology rooms, specialist cardiac imaging rooms, out-patient treatment delivery space and an early phase in-patient treatment area.

Academic research is led through the University of Leeds, Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine. The Cardiovascular CRF is crucial in providing the central hub for staff and bespoke facilities to support translational research delivery. The work of the academic unit and research facility is supported by research active charities such as the British Heart Foundation.

Cardiology at LTHT has a large number of research active Professors and Consultants working alongside Nurses and Allied Health Professionals engaging in a wide variety of areas of special interests including : Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PPCI), Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation, Heart Failure, Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and Epidemiology.

Interventional cardiology involves the use of invasive catheters and devices to diagnose and treat cardiac problems avoiding open surgical treatment. Leeds is one of the largest UK centres for interventional cardiology maintaining 7 full time consultant cardiologists and supporting visiting operators from 6 other local hospitals.

Leeds provides a Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (Primary PCI) service for over 1,000 patients each year admittedly acutely with a heart attack. Patients are brought to Leeds from across West Yorkshire by the West Yorkshire Ambulance Service (WYMAS) or by helicopter from more remote areas. The service in Leeds is the largest single centre Primary PCI service across the UK and Leeds was one of the national pilot sites for this service.

Cardiac Surgery in Leeds has been established since 1957. The unit provides care for more than 700 patients per year undergoing planned or urgent heart surgery. Outcome results are in the top quartile for the UK and our feedback from patients undergoing surgery in Leeds is excellent.

For more information about cardiac surgery, please visit the Yorkshire Heart Centre webpage. 

The ICC team is group of medical professionals providing a specialist service for patients and their families with inherited cardiovascular conditions.

Inherited cardiovascular conditions (or ICCs as they are known) cover a diverse range of conditions but they all have three things in common: 

• ICCs can affect the heart
• ICCs can affect young people
• ICCs can run in families

 Our service is designed to deal specifically with each of these issues: 

• Our Adult Cardiologists manage problems relating to the heart in adults
• Our Paediatric Cardiologists manage heart disease in children
• Our Clinical Geneticists focus on issues relating to the family 

Within the NHS these three specialities are known as the Core Team.

One great strength of our service is that our Core Team run clinics in the same department, at the same time, so when you visit us, we can deal will all aspects of your condition simultaneously.