A team providing a high quality cardiac rehabilitation service to patients in Burton and South Derbyshire has been singled out for its "gold standard" work with a national accolade.
The cardiac rehabilitation team at Queen’s Hospital has been awarded the British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (BACPR) certification and the National Audit for Cardiac Rehabilitation (NACR) certification, making it just one of 26 cardiac rehab services across the UK to receive the prestige honour.
The staff were awarded the certificate after they submitted a formal written process to see if they met each separate standard along with a formal report from the National Database which shows if the standards were met.
The BACPR Standards and Core components are the gold standard for delivery of Cardiac Rehabilitation within the UK.
Julie Hughes, cardiac rehabilitation manager at Queen’s Hospital, said: "I am so very proud that as a team, our service has achieved BACPR/NACR Certification for the next three years.
It shows that the trust’s cardiac rehab service is providing the gold standard of Cardiac Rehabilitation and meeting national guidelines.
"The local population can be assured they will be receiving a high quality service. We are already looking to enhance the service further, to achieve recertification.
"Feedback from the patients via the national audit database questionnaires has provided some of the evidence to achieve this status, so I would like to also thank our patients for their continued support."
Earlier this month it was revealed that health bosses had promised cardiology services in both Burton and Derby would greatly improve if the proposed merger between the two NHS trusts goes ahead.
Despite concerns from campaigners that services could be lost from the Burton hospital as a result of the plans, health bosses said cardiology services, responsible for monitoring and treating heart issues, would benefit under the plans.
Magnus Harrison, the medical director at Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The cardiac theatre in Burton is used for diagnostic work, so we float the dye in, look at the artery that is supplying the heart, work out where a blockage is, take the catheterization out and send you somewhere else to have the intervention."
Chief executive of the Derby trust, Gavin Boyle added: "The catheterization lab in Burton is only currently used for the diagnostic work, but it will become much bigger when put with Derby.
"We will be able to secure the necessary accreditation so that the Burton laboratory can actually do the procedure as well.
"People attending Burton hospital will not only get the images of their heart, but will also be treated as well, so that's a nice win-win."
Magnus Harrison added: "The benefit to Derby around cardiology is around complex pacemaker devices and again this is one of those super-specialised things that at the moment we use Glenfield and Stoke.
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"Coming together we will have a big enough population to do that work in Derby, so the patients in Burton will come to Derby, and the patients in and around Derby will stay in Derby for that complex pacemaker work and we ideally will not be using Glenfield or Stoke for that."
