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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
- Telephone: 01872 252431
For queries relating to patient appointments and booking, please contact:
- Telephone: 01872 252018
Cardiac catheter laboratories
Lab telephone: 01872 253997
Heart function nurses
- Telephone: 01872 253018
- Email: rch-tr.heartfunction@nhs.net
Chest pain nurses
- Telephone: 01872 252911
- Email: rch-tr.ChestRef@nhs.net
Cardiac rehabilitation
For queries relating to the inpatient service, please contact:
- Telephone: 01872 253740 (please leave a message on the answerphone and a member of the team will return your call during working hours)
- Email: rch-tr.cardiacrehab@nhs.net
For queries relating to the community cardiac rehab team, please contact:
- Telephone: West Cornwall 01209 318063. Central Cornwall 01872 246904 (Truro Health park team) / 01726 873086 (St Austell team). North Cornwall 01579 373535
- Email: cpn-tr.communitycardiacservices@nhs.net
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 heart failure and heart attacks
This content is supplied by the NHS website nhs.uk
Heart failure
Heart attacks
Patient Information (Leaflets)
Professional careers in cardiology
There are multiple ways to find out about careers in this area:
- Find out more about careers in cardiology on the healthcareers website
- See the Trust’s current vacancies on our careers website.
Page last reviewed: 26 February 2024