Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Dr Vinoda Sharma is currently Specialty Lead for Cardiology; Dr Stavros Apostolakis is the Clinical Director for Admitted Care, of which Cardiology forms a part; Dr Chetan Varma (also a consultant cardiologist) is the Group Director for Medicine and Emergency Care. MMUH has Medical Admission Units adjacent to the Emergency Departments. 

The cardiology consultants provide a seven day service for cardiology patients at MMUH. The Consultant Cardiologist of the Week (non-Interventionist) carries out a ward round on the Cardiology A2 ward every day, supported by junior staff. MMUH Acute Medical Uniit (AMU) Ward Rounds are covered by Interventional Cardiologists in the morning. MMUH Cardiology Ward (A2) Rounds are covered by Non-Interventional Cardiologists (all-day). On the MMUH AMU, there is a daily consultant ward round on the acute medical unit (after initial assessment by the RMO and medical on-take team) in which patients needing prolonged specialist cardiac or catheter lab management are transferred the Cardiology A2 ward. All the patients requiring cardiology management are reviewed by the cardiology team with daily ward rounds on the cardiology wards, acute medical unit and ward referrals. All suspected acute coronary syndrome patients will be seen, as well as those with significant arrhythmias and those with heart failure. 

Out-patient Clinics at Sandwell and City Hospitals

At Sandwell Hospital, the out-patient department is directly adjacent to the cardiology department and therefore access to exercise testing, echocardiography and rhythm management facilities. At City Hospital, the Birmingham Treatment Centre also provides out-patient facilities adjacent to the Cardiology Department. The appointee would have two cardiology clinics per week. There may be a requirement for the appointee to do outpatient work outside the hospital in line with the “Right Care Right Here” programme.  At present there were a total of about 18000 outpatient attendances per year in the cardiology Dept.  Modern IT systems (UNITY) support delivery of service to improve rapid turnover and communication with primary care and all our patient records are electronic.

Cardiac Catheterisation and Intervention

MMUH is equipped with state of the art Siemens Artis Icono Biplane catheter labs adjacent to each other with plans to install a third catheter lab in the provided space. Cath lab coordination is supported using the dedicated Labyrinth^@ IT system and dedicated nurse Cath Lab Coordinator.  One cath lab runs routinely from 8am-6pm and Saturday mornings from 9am -12pm, with the second lab running 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.  Cath labs run mixed lists of acute and elective patients. Angiograms are supported using the Change Healthcare^@ system, images being visible on any PC within the Trust at any time by the cardiology team as well as Cath reports and BCIS returns.

The Trust has a longstanding PCI programme and has undertaken coronary intervention with off-site surgical support from neighbouring cardiac surgical facilities for over 2 decades.

On average more than 1100 interventional procedures including approximately 900 PCI’s are undertaken every year. A full range of diagnostic and therapeutic angioplasty devices are available including IVUS, OCT, pressure wire studies, rotational atherectomy, thrombectomy catheters, distal protection devices IVL etc.

 We are a high volume radial centre with 96% of PCI cases undertaken radially in 2023. We utilise pressure wire in approximately 20% of our cases and intracoronary imaging (OCT or IVUS) in 15-20% of cases. We have the full range of tools for calcium modification including rotational atherectomy, IVL as well as orbital atherectomy.

A primary angioplasty service for acute myocardial infarction was established in the early 2000s, with 24 hours, 7 day service running since January 2005.  There is a full Emergency department at the new Midlands Metropolitan Hospital. There is a 1 in 8 interventional rota (with internal cover) with approximately 250 STEMIs per year suitable for PPCI in the last calendar year. Arrangements are in place to allow for compensatory rest.