Routine check ups after CABG x5

[Seal59]

I’m just asking out of curiosity - my husband had a quintuple bypass in Canada 2 years ago. We came back to the U.K. last August and gave the doctor all his records. Do people have annual checks with a cardiologist here or if you are ok is that it?

[080311]

Hi, I can tell you what happened to me, I had Aortic valve replaced and bypass 4 years ago, saw surgeon 6 weeks post op discharged back to my cardiologist saw him 6 months after surgery and discharged back to my GP. I haven’t seen him since. GP does review of my drugs, I do have an annual echocardiogram ( not this year so far) this is to check my valve to make sure the pressure is still ok. So as long as you’re husband was discharged from his surgeon and cardiologist it’s just the GP unless he/she feels there is a problem.

Best wishes Pauline

[Seal59 in reply to 080311]

Thank you for that. I suspected that was the case, I just wanted to check he hadn't fallen through the system because of the change of countries.

[Chappychap]

After a successful bypass operation in the UK you are discharged from the cardiologist/hospital and back into the care of your GP. You will probably be offered a six or eight week "Cardio Rehab Course", which aims to educate anyone who has had heart surgery or a heart attack on best practise regarding exercise, diet, medication, etc.

The norm is for you to then have an annual appointment with your GP (or possibly with the practise nurse) where you'll have blood tests, be weighed, have your blood pressure taken, and probably (but not definitely) have a basic ECG.

I have duel nationality, Canadian and British, even though we live in the UK at the present we may move to Vancouver at some point in the future. I had a heart bypass operation in late 2018, so I'm interested in your assessment of how post bypass care varies between Canada and the UK?

[Seal59 in reply to Chappychap]

Thanks for that info. My husband’s surgery was in Kelowna. We couldn’t fault the treatment he got it was excellent. We lived 3 hours from the hospital so unfortunately he didn’t get offered the cardiac rehab. He had a follow up with surgeon at 8 weeks and another appointment with the cardiologist. We were under the impression that he would have an annual check up with the cardiologist, but we may have got that wrong. We left Canada a year later and came back to England.