Community Heart Failure Service – South Manchester
We are a nurse led community heart failure service. We specialise in the management of adults diagnosed with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) for GP registered patients in South Manchester.
The service provides a mixture of community clinics, home visits for housebound patients and telephone consultations. We work closely with GP’s, cardiologists and other primary (GP) and secondary care (hospital) colleagues. Both of our Heart Failure Nurses are independent prescribers and our clinical supervisor is Professor Simon Williams, Consultant Cardiologist at Wythenshawe Hospital
We aim to optimise disease modifying drug therapies in line with national guidelines to improve patient outcomes and reduce hospitalisations. We also offer support to patients and their families/carers, to empower them through education so they can manage their symptoms with non-drug based interventions.
We help adult heart failure patients who have a diagnosis of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (HFrEF) confirmed by an echocardiogram. Patients must be registered with a South Manchester GP.
We visit patients in their homes and help to optimise their disease modifying treatment, to improve their symptoms and to manage their condition. We provide a mixture of home visits, community clinic and telephone consultations.
These services include:
- Assessment of heart failure patients
- Development of heart failure management plans
- Titration of medications,
- Assessment and referral onwards for device therapies
- Psychological screening
- Co-ordination of palliative and end-of-life care with the provision of subcutaneous diuretic therapy
- Close liaison with GPs, cardiologists and wider primary and secondary care specialists
- Referral onto other services both (statutory and voluntary) such as cardiac rehabilitation, D2A, rapid response, care navigators.
We also provide education and training to primary care teams and advice and management plans to GPs for patients diagnosed with HFpEF. Alongside this we provide audit and evaluation of treatments.
We accept referrals into our service from South Manchester GPs, Wythenshawe hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary. Referrals are via SPA and patients must be south Manchester GP registered. We also accept referrals from the wider community teams such as D2A, Crisis Response and Manchester Case Management.
- Single Point of Access (SPA) – 0300 303 9650
We do not accept self-referrals from patients.
Patients are triaged according to the severity of their symptoms. We aim to review a patient within 7 to 10 days of hospital discharge to avoid readmission. We aim to see GP referrals within 2 weeks if the patient is stable. Unstable patients will be reviewed within the same week.
We provide home visits and clinics in the community but our team are based at:
1st Floor Forum Health
Simonsway
Wythenshawe
Manchester M22 5RX.
Tel: 0161 549 6552 (not for referrals)
Our team is made up of two specialist heart failure nurses and administration support:
- Margot Foley – Community Heart Failure Specialist Nurse margo.foley@mft.nhs.uk
- Carolyne Feldman – Community Heart Failure Specialist Nurse carolyne.feldman@mft.nhs.uk
- Kath Devine – Admin Support kathryn.devine@mft.nhs.uk
- Professor Simon Williams – Consultant Cardiologist and Clinical Lead for Heart Failure.