Heart failure
What we do
We provide specialist investigation and treatment for people with heart failure. Heart failure can be caused by any heart abnormality but is often caused by a weakened heart muscle. Coronary artery disease (causing heart attacks or angina) is the most common cause of this condition, but there are many others.
We treat inpatients on Cardiology wards, as well as outpatients. Our specialist outpatient clinics include:
- heart failure, including telephone clinics to follow-up patients at home
- inherited cardiomyopathy
- elderly care
- cardio-oncology
- pulmonary hypertension (raised blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs).
We have excellent links with transplant centres. King’s also provides community-based specialist heart failure services for Lambeth and Southwark residents, in partnership with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Preparing for your appointment
- You do not need to prepare for most outpatient appointments but please contact us beforehand to check.
- Please bring an up-to-date list of all the medicines you are currently taking.
- When you arrive, before seeing a doctor or nurse, you will have an ECG (electrocardiogram) which records your heart’s electrical activity. You may also need an ultrasound scan of your heart (echocardiogram) and some blood tests.
Location
Suite 6, First Floor, Golden Jubilee Wing, King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS
Contact Details
- Main Reception: 020 3299 4860
- Heart Failure Coordinator: 020 3299 4860
- Outpatient appointments: 020 3299 1919
Conditions we treat
We treat:
- left ventricular dysfunction of any cause
- chemotherapy or drug-induced heart failure
- specific heart muscle diseases such as amyloid, sarcoid and peripartum cardiomyopathy
- inherited cardiomyopathies including hypertrophic or dilated cardiomyopathy.
We also offer the following specialist clinics:
- Heart failure – consultant-led: three per week for patients with a new or suspected diagnosis of heart failure. Follow-up is arranged as appropriate.
- Heart failure – nurse-led: three per week for patients already diagnosed with heart failure, providing close monitoring and follow-up, medication up-titration, assessment of educational needs and self-management strategies. Nurses also conduct telephone clinics to follow up patients at home.
- Inherited cardiomyopathy clinic: run with a cardiac nurse geneticist for patients (and their families) with heart muscle problems such as hypertrophic or dilated cardiomyopathy and inherited heart rhythm problems.
- Elderly care: for elderly patients with heart failure and significant co-morbidities. The clinic has close links with all the elderly care services.
- Cardio-oncology: fast-track access to specialised clinics for cancer patients with cardiac toxicity.
- Pulmonary hypertension: provided by teams from King’s and the Pulmonary Hypertension Unit at the Royal Free Hospital.
Our Heart Failure unit has an active clinical research programme as part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre. We have a dedicated research team that helps drive excellence and innovation for our patients.
Booking a patient at King’s
GPs should refer via NHS e-referral (e-RS) wherever possible.
Other ways to refer
Routine Referrals
Other healthcare professionals can email routine referrals to [email protected]
Emergency Referrals
To make an urgent referral, use NHS e-Referral and state that the referral is urgent.
For emergency referrals, contact the Heart Failure Administrator:
Tel 020 3299 4860
Email [email protected]
Other Queries
Heart Failure Administrator: tel 020 3299 4860
For advice about emergency referrals or to request a transfer between hospitals, contact the Cardiology SpR on call via King’s main switchboard, tel: 020 3299 9000.
Key Clinical Staff
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Dr George Amin-Youssef | Consultant Cardiologist |
| Ms Julia deCourcey | Consultant Nurse, Cardiology |
| Mrs Ludcy Lukose | Clinical Nurse Specialist |
| Prof Theresa McDonagh | Consultant Cardiologist |
| Dr Darlington Obi Okonko | Consultant Cardiologist |