Cardiac team praised for quickness with scanning heart patients

New data from 20 regional and local NHS Trusts has shown that patients who need heart scans in Wolverhampton now have the second shortest waiting times in the region.

The data for June 2024 showed just four out of 1,037 patients were waiting longer than six weeks for an Echocardiogram (0.39 per cent), a scan to look at the heart and nearby blood vessels, at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT).

This follows a similar trend for May 2024, when just five out of 1,006 patients (0.50 per cent) were waiting longer than six weeks for the test.

At the beginning of 2023, RWT’s Cardiac Investigations Department (CID), which serves New Cross Hospital and Cannock Chase Hospital, offered the test within six weeks to 33 per cent of patients.

The department said it has turned this around to 99.5 and 99.61 per cent of patients in May and June 2024 respectively.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust topped the table with 99.84 per cent in June and 100 per cent in May.

There have also been reductions in many other cardiac investigation tests waiting times, such as Holter Analysis (a portable device for cardiac monitoring for at least 24 hours) reporting, which is now at two weeks, while continuing to provide a 24-hour urgent on-call service for acute patients.

Chander Sharma, Group Manager, Cardiac Services, based at New Cross Hospital, said: “We are proud in our values of staff empowerment and building a listening culture.

“By providing our staff with the means to actively engage and share feedback and ideas, we have seen a significant improvement with our performance.

“The benefits of initiatives such as staff surveys, and Freedom to Speak Up engagement are significant, and can be a real objective driver for change.”

The trust said that with careful and diligent service planning, the department recruited and retained more staff, reducing reliance on external locum agencies by 50 per cent, while improving staff morale, teamwork and productivity.

It also said that looking ahead, service sustainability is being developed through enhanced mentorship and training, with additional equipment bought via charitable funds.

The CID has also featured in staff awards, while more staff have attended and presented at multiple educational events and conferences, winning research prizes, and publishing papers.

In addition, many staff have achieved international and British accreditation in Electrophysiology, Cardiac Rhythm Management, and Echocardiography this year.

Emma Painter, newly-appointed Cardiology Service Manager, said: “We’ve seen wonderful achievements over the past 12 months and the entire Cardiac Investigation Department has worked tirelessly to achieve great things.

“We still have areas to work on, and each discipline – Cardiac Rhythm Management, echo, Cath Lab and Electrophysiology, non-invasive cardiac diagnostics and our administration team – have each faced their own challenges.

“But with effective teamwork and a desire to achieve, these challenges have been faced head on.

"I’m so very proud of the Cardiac Investigation team.”