Cardiology

About this service

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Cardiology department looks after patients with acute and chronic heart conditions such as congenital heart defects, coronary heart disease, heart failure and people who have had heart attacks.

We offer a wide range of non­surgical Cardiac interventions and services to both in­patients and outpatients. We work closely with GPs, Community Cardiac Nurses, tele­health and Acute care at Home to provide a holistic service for our patients, helping them manage and improve their conditions and daily life.

Inpatients will most likely stay with us in the Cardiac Investigation Unit, a 19-bedded Cardiology Ward.

The Cardiac Catheter Labs

Cardiac catheterisation is widely used to both diagnose and treat patients with known or suspected heart disease.

At the Royal Cornwall Hospital, we have two modern and well equipped Cardiac Catheter Laboratories. Many of our patients attend as day cases and don’t need to stay overnight in hospital.

The labs perform a variety of cardiac procedures, including:

  • Diagnostic coronary procedures
  • Interventional coronary interventions
  • Internal Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD) procedures
  • Pacing procedures
  • ICD and Biventricular Pacing
  • Electro physiological (EP) procedures

Our specialist Heart Function nurses

The Royal Cornwall Hospital Heart Function Nursing service provides clinical and educational support for patients who are admitted to hospital with heart failure. We also provide an outpatient rapid-access diagnostic clinic (The Rapid Access Heart Function Clinic). The clinic makes sure patients referred to our service by their GPs undergo appropriate imaging and are provided with a relevant clinical management plan. This ensures that their cardiac condition is identified and managed in a timely way. The team will also refer appropriate patients to the community-based Cardiac Specialist Nurses for ongoing support with condition-related education and clinical management.

Our cardiac chest pain specialist nurses

The Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust Chest Pain Specialist Nursing service provides clinical review and management advice for patients who present to the Royal Cornwall Hospital with chest pain suspected to be cardiac in origin and symptomatic coronary artery disease.

We liaise closely with the emergency medical teams and the cardiology team. We also provide an outpatient rapid-access chest pain assessment service (Rapid-Access Chest Pain Clinic) for patients presenting to their GP or the Emergency Department, with symptoms suggestive for stable angina.

Rehabilitation for patients following a heart attack

We work with a multidisciplinary team of health professionals to provide Cardiac Rehabilitation to patients following their heart attack, supporting them to achieve and maintain optimal physical and psychosocial health.

This service is run by a team of specially trained cardiac specialist nurses, who provide an educational programme and support to patients during their hospital stay. After discharge from hospital, patients are followed up on the telephone by either a member of the inpatient cardiac rehab team, or by the community cardiac specialist nurses (depending on location). Patients will then have the opportunity to be referred onto an exercise programme which is supported by a team of exercise specialists, physiotherapists and cardiac nurses, who are trained to safely exercise patients with heart conditions.

Our team receive training from the BACPR (British Association for Cardiac Rehabilitation) and follow their standards and core components to underpin the best available current evidence and examples of best practice.

Cardiac Surgical Liaison service

This service provides support and education to patients awaiting Cardiac surgery. The team ensures that all surgical work up investigations are carried out in timely manner and liaises closely with all members of the multidisciplinary team, including the surgical centre involved in the patients care. It aims to review patients on a regular basis, keeping them updated about developments and escalating treatment if required.

Contact information

Cardiac Department

For queries relating to patient appointments and booking, please contact:

Cardiac catheter laboratories

Lab telephone: 01872 253997

Heart function nurses

Chest pain nurses

Cardiac rehabilitation

For queries relating to the inpatient service, please contact:

For queries relating to the community cardiac rehab team, please contact:

Where to find us

This service has multiple locations, which may change due to construction work. Your appointment letter will tell you where to go; please read it carefully before attending.

Information about chest pain

This content is supplied by the NHS website nhs.uk

Information about heart failure and heart attacks

This content is supplied by the NHS website nhs.uk

Professional careers in cardiology

There are multiple ways to find out about careers in this area:

Page last reviewed: 26 February 2024

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