Cardiology (Heart Services)

We assess patients with a suspected cardiac condition which requires immediate specialist attention. The CSRU provides rapid clinical assessment by a specialist team of doctors and nurses and delivers the most appropriate immediate care before admission to the cardiac ward, transfer to an alternative service or discharge home.

Call 999 if you think you’re suffering from a cardiac condition which requires immediate medical attention. The CSRU is not available to walk-in patients.

Some acute cardiac conditions don’t require admission to the CSRU and we may be able to treat you at Stoke Mandeville Hospital or in the Urgent Treatment Centre at Wycombe Hospital.

We care for patients suffering from advanced/chronic and decompensated heart failure. We work closely with other consultant cardiologists, specialist cardiac nurses and cardiac physiologists to provide a holistic service to our patients.

We provide care to patients with heart failure on our coronary care unit and general wards across our hospitals.

Heart failure clinics

In our heart failure clinics we assess your progress and prescribe, adjust and monitor heart failure medications. We help improve your prognosis with prompt life-saving therapy. We also help enhance your quality of life through education to help you self-manage your heart condition and reduce the impact of symptoms. We also provide support for families and carers who play a key role in the day-to-day lives of our patients.

We work closely with our adult community healthcare teams, GPs, other cardiologists, practice nurses, palliative care teams, social care services and cardiac rehabilitation teams. The service also links in with other specialist teams offering treatments for diabetes, respiratory and kidney disorders and psychological needs.

Please read our heart failure diary – a short guide to help you manage your heart condition.

We offer practical and emotional support to patients and their families. We help patients who have been diagnosed with heart disease or heart failure, or who are undergoing cardiac surgery.

We give advice, support and counselling and offer exercise rehabilitation.

Cardiac rehabilitation classes and rehabilitation programmes are available in hospital and community settings across Buckinghamshire.

• Amiodarone therapy
• Dobutamine stress echocardiography
• Heart failure diary
• Implantable cardioverter defibrillator and cardiac resynchronisation therapy defibrillator
• Medicines for your heart
• Pacemaker guide for patients
• Transoesophageal echocardiography
• Transthoracic echocardiography