| |
News
Click
above for Pdf Files
Our annual Fun Walks and our Patient and Carer Partnership meetings continue
to be
successful with many attendees.
We are affiliated to Arrhythmia Alliance and have begun vascular work with stroke organisations.
An ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) sub-group has been formed and is doing well.
We continue to present at the monthly education classes for new patients provided by the
Rehabilitation Department, handing out our Recipe Booklet to endorse the talk by the dietician.
In 2006 we donated £50,000 towards the cost of a Transeosophageal Echocardiography machine (TOE),
which assists surgeons by showing pictures of the back of the heart during an operation.
As a further means of assistance to future patients we have more recently donated £20,000 for the
purchase of a three dimensional TOE camera, thus enabling our cardiologists to undertake the
implantation of valves by means of angioplasty (TAVI).
In the same year, to assist hospital finances, we pledged two years’ salary payments for an
Arrhythmia Nurse Specialist and also for a whole time equivalent in the Rehabilitation Department,
a total over two years of in excess of £150,000 and in addition we have funded an assistant
for a period of 12 months.
The Trust has since picked up these salary commitments.
We have also contributed £20,000 towards the purchase of a state of the art Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) machine,
which gives a clear sectional view of an artery, which greatly assists cardiologists in their work.
We have also pledged £26,000 for research into “minimally Invasive Surgery”, using keyhole incisions rather
than opening up the whole chest and breaking the breastbone.
There have also been smaller donations to surgery and cardiology.
More recently we have undertaken to finance the Phase IV exercise programme in the community,
which involves paying for the services of two exercise Physiotherapists and the fees of four city Leisure Centres.
Our chairman, Ken Timmis, is the current President of Heart Care Partnership (UK),
the patient and carer arm of the British Cardiovascular Society.
On 13th September 2011 we held our annual Patient and Carer Meeting at Wolverhampton Science Park.
The facilities were excellent and the speakers also.
Eighty-two patients and carers had a thoroughly good time and learned
much from the presentations.
On 16th September we held our usual Golf Tournament. Fourteen teams took part.
The weather was mixed but didn’t seem to dampen the spirits. All the scores were good, but when our host’s team won
the trophy there were a few cries of “fixed”. Afterwards we held our Annual Dinner at the Golf Club, when sixty-two of us rounded
off the day with their excellent fare. Our thanks are extended to the Committee of Penn Golf Club and to Steve Barratt in particular.
A good time was had by all.
We have a reputation for finding work for idle hands and therefore welcome any help in
maintaining and improving our services to patients and carers of the Centre.
 |
|
|
|