Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 26, 2026
An Isolated Working Heart System for Large Animal Models
Published on: June 11, 2014
Provision, organization and models of heart valve clinics within The United Kingdom
S Bhattacharyya1, C Pavitt1, G Lloyd1
1From the Department of Cardiology, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, London, UK, Department of Cardiology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK, Department of Cardiology, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, Eastbourne, UK and Cardiothoracic Centre, Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
Insights
Specialist heart valve clinics are underprovided in the UK, with significantly fewer available in district general hospitals compared to tertiary cardiac centres. This highlights a disparity in patient care for heart valve disease.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Healthcare Services Research
- Clinical Audit
Background:
- Specialist clinics are recommended for heart valve disease assessment and follow-up.
- Current provision of these specialist clinics in the UK is not well-defined.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the current availability and models of specialist heart valve clinics across the UK.
- To assess the resources and patient populations served by these clinics.
Main Methods:
- A database of UK National Health Service hospitals was compiled.
- An online survey was distributed to assess clinic models, patient demographics, imaging availability, and information services.
Main Results:
- Only 21% of UK hospitals had dedicated valve clinics, with a 5-fold higher prevalence in tertiary centres (60%) versus district hospitals (11%).
- Clinics were primarily run by consultant cardiologists (56%), with varying access to advanced imaging modalities like CT (65%) and PET (18%).
- Patient populations included native valve disease (94%), post-surgery (56%), and interventions (29%).
Conclusions:
- There is a significant underprovision of specialist heart valve clinics in the UK.
- A notable disparity exists in clinic availability between specialized cardiac centres and general district hospitals.
Background:
Specialist clinics are recommended for the assessment and follow-up of patients with heart valve disease. We sought to identify the current provision of specialist valve clinics in UK.
Methods:
A database of all UK National Health Service hospitals was created. An online survey was distributed to each hospital to examine the model of heart valve clinic, patient population, provision of advanced imaging modalities and biochemical markers and provision of patient information services.
Results:
Valve clinics were run in 48/228 (21%) hospitals, in 27/45 (60%) tertiary centres and 21/183 (11%) district hospitals. The survey was completed by 34 (71%). A consultant cardiologist ran the clinic in 19 (56%), a cardiac sonographer in 8 (24%), a nurse specialist in 3 (9%) and a hybrid model was used in 4 (12%). Patients with native valve disease were seen in 32 (94%), after heart valve surgery in 19 (56%), pre-/post-transcatheter valve intervention in 10 (29%) and with Marfan syndrome in 9(26%). Stress echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and positron emission tomography were available in 21 (62%), 19 (56%), 22 (65%) and 6 (18%) hospitals, respectively.
Conclusion:
There is an underprovision of specialist heart valve clinics within the UK, and there is a 5-fold difference between cardiac centres and district general hospitals.
