Follow Up

[derek2bell]

Hi

I'm curious as to the level of follow up I should have had after having stents inserted in my heart. Back in October 2020 following a heart attack in the September I had five inserted. Since then I have had nothing from the hospital where the surgery took place, nothing from my local heart hospital and nothing from the

[Tos92]

Hi  derek2bell

I’m sorry to hear about your heart attack. Gosh, those are a lot of stents but I am so glad to hear you seemed to have recovered okay.

I have noticed after being discharged from the hospital, at least with my local hospital, there is not always a follow appointment or plan. Recently, what I did was I called my local cardiology department at the hospital and made an appointment to see a cardiologist. I was able to get the appointment and was seen yesterday.

So I would suggest for you to do the same. They will already see that you are a patient hopefully on their records and there should be no issues with making an appointment. Unfortunately, sometimes we as patients have to chase. This is often the case where the hospitals might be low on staffing.

Fingers crossed you can get seen sooner rather than later.

Keep us updated on your progress.

All the best.

Tos

[Stentrunner]

I had stents in April 2020. I had contact from cardiac nurses by phone after a week and a fortnight, then weekly calls from the physio for rehab for 6 weeks. Might have had an 6-month checkup from Cardiologist? Annual phone call from the cardiologist. Annual review by my GP.

[Chappychap]

Here's what seems to be the standard follow up care following heart attacks, stents, and bypass surgery, at least amongst English health trusts.

The hospital (not your GP) arranges for you to attend a cardio rehab programme, six training sessions of about an hour each, commencing six to eight weeks after discharge. Cardio rehab gives you the tools to optimise your life style and understand why your medication is so important.

The hard fact is that for heart disease/atherosclorosis (responsible for 90% of heart attacks) life style changes and medication are the only tools in our toolbox. Unless we optimise them both then our odds of a repeat cardiac event are uncomfortably high. That's why the NHS sinks so much money into the preventative medicine investment of cardio rehab.

The second leg of follow up care is an annual cardio check up with either your GP or a specially trained practise nurse. This normally involves a life style discussion (including being weighed), blood pressure, a range of blood tests, and an ECG. This has a number of objectives, checking the patient understands the importance of initiatives like quitting smoking, regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy BMI; checking that medication isn't damaging the patients organs; and checking if the patient is drifting towards the common co-morbidity of type 2 diabetes.

I've also had cardiac treatment in Canada, where they have a similar programme, and I understand something similar is also in place in Australia.

If you've not received these two components then your care hasn't been optimised, and I'd raise it with your GP and also with the hospital that stented you.

Good luck!