The Barts Heart Centre in London, one of Europe’s largest specialist cardiovascular complexes, is now treating over 200 patients a day under one roof for the first time.
Eighteen months after opening its doors at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City, the flagship facility run by Barts Health NHS Trust has finally brought all its 1,100 staff and equipment together in one ‘state-of the-art’ building. The centre now houses nine cardiovascular operating theatres, 10 catheter laboratories, 200 general cardiac beds, and 58 critical care beds in its King George V wing. Previously some cardiovascular wards were housed on older buildings around the site while construction work was finalised
Created by bringing together teams from both Barts Health and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the centre is now treating 31 per cent more emergency heart attack patients per year than under the previous split-site arrangements. Barts Health says the hospital is also responding to heart attacks quicker than before, with an average of 98 per cent of patients receiving treatment within the national standard in 2016 against a target of 85 per cent. It added: “The new clinical model of care could save over 1,000 lives a year, by giving patients world-class care at every stage – from prevention and diagnosis, through to treatment and beyond.”
Charles Knight, managing director of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, said: “With these final moves our Barts Heart Centre is now complete, having created a truly integrated, world-class cardiovascular centre in the heart of our city. We are hopeful that these world-class facilities will help tackle London’s high rates of early deaths from heart disease, while helping to train the heart doctors and nurses of the future.”
The Barts Heart Centre opened in April 2015, bringing together services and staff from The Heart Hospital previously run by University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with those already provided by Barts Health NHS Trust at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and the London Chest Hospital. In 2015 services, patients, and over 1,000 staff were transferred over a six-week period without any major clinical incidents.
