Heart Centre celebrates 10 years anniversary
17/10/2019
This article is more than four years old.
The Oxford Heart Centre today (Thursday 17 October 2019) marked the 10-year milestone since it opened in autumn 2009.
Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust held an event to celebrate all the dedicated staff who make the Heart Centre what it is - a leading centre of excellence providing advanced treatment and care, as well as outstanding support for patients and their families.
Trust Chair Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, Trust Chief Executive Officer Dr Bruno Holthof, and Oxford Hospitals Charity's Chief Executive Officer Dr Douglas Graham were joined by members of staff to cut the birthday cake.
Sir Jonathan said: "We are very proud of the Heart Centre, which is a leading service in our Trust. It has made a real difference to patients treated here and the improvements it has brought over the last 10 years are very impressive.
"All credit goes to the wonderful staff whose dedication and skill enable us to provide top class cardiothoracic services. Their commitment is the foundation for our patients' benefit and I am very grateful to them."
The £29m Heart Centre opened in October 2009, offering a wide range of specialist services including a 24-hour centre for patients with suspected heart attacks. Before 2009, the cardiothoracic services were spread over a large area in the hospital. The Heart Centre brought all of this under one roof. A particular benefit has been our integrated outpatient and diagnostic suite which has greatly improved patient experience and staff morale.
Over the last 10 years, the centre has provided the most advanced care as well as state-of-the-art facilities, and is supported by an internationally-renowned academic department of cardiovascular medicine. Both the cardiac and thoracic surgery teams have been recognised nationally for clinical excellence.
See pictures from the celebration by searching for #OxHeartCentre10 on Twitter and Instagram.
Oxford Hospitals Charity
Oxford Hospitals Charity was instrumental in creating the Oxford Heart Centre 10 years ago, and raised £2m to ensure it had the best equipment and facilities for our expert clinical teams and their patients.
The Heart Centre's anniversary also marks the launch of the charity's new Oxfordshire's Heartfelt Appeal, which will help towards funding additional medical equipment. You can read more here on the charity's website about the appeal.
Dr Douglas Graham, Oxford Hospitals Charity's Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are delighted to be celebrating this important moment with staff today and also to launch our latest appeal to help heart and lung patients treated at the centre.
"Ten years ago, we were able to provide some really cutting-edge equipment for the centre, and as technology rapidly moves forward we are keen to continue helping our clinical colleagues remain at the very forefront of medical advances.
"Having the best possible equipment and facilities means they can provide the highest quality of care to the many thousands of patients using the centre, and we hope the local community will support our Oxfordshire Heartfelt Appeal to help us with these aims."
Oxford Heart Centre and Oxford Hospitals Charity have organised a morning of talks about innovations and advances in cardiothoracic care. The free event takes place on Saturday 19 October - places can be booked at www.hospitalcharity.co.uk/heartfelt
Saving lives
One of the many aspects of care that were improved with the opening of the Oxford Heart Centre was the location of all five cardiac catheterisation laboratories on the lower ground floor.
A large proportion of the procedural work carried out by the Centre occurs in these areas, ranging from emergency treatment of heart attack patients to the advanced research and innovative work done in all aspects of interventional cardiology.
Dr Kim Rajappan, a Consultant Cardiologist at the Trust, said: "The opening of the Heart Centre located all of the expertise in procedures that need to be done in special rooms known as 'cath labs' in one dedicated area.
"Patients now can go from being diagnosed with a heart attack at home to being treated within minutes. People can also come in and be treated for a wide range of heart problems all within one area and by multiple different specialist healthcare professionals in this dedicated facility, and even be home the same day.
"This is a testament to the staff and the facilities provided by the Heart Centre."
Over the last decade there have been great advancements in cardiothoracic care, many of which have been directly facilitated by the Oxford Heart Centre.
The provision of a dedicated intensive care unit means more surgery can be performed with excellent outcomes, and the smooth transition from the ambulance service to the heart attack centre means people suffering a heart attack are treated promptly, therefore saving more lives. Patients can now have a variety of complex treatments and be out of hospital the same day.
As a regional referral centre of excellence, a wide range of surgical and medical services are available, including: heart surgery, coronary intervention, state-of-the-art imaging, teaching, the '24/7' heart attack centre, and one of three heart valve banks in the UK.
The Cardiology team serves a population of 2.2m people, and in 2018-19 the directorate delivered more than 45,000 outpatient appointments, over 6,000 procedures, and nearly 16,000 diagnostic imaging procedures.