Cardiac Support Services
We offer holistic care across Barts Health, including dedicated patient care advisors, specialist diagnostic testing, rehabilitation, and psychological support.
Cardiac support services
Supporting you at every stage of your heart care
Our cardiac support services provide holistic care across Barts Health, helping you feel informed, supported and prepared throughout your treatment and recovery.
You’ll receive personalised support from a multidisciplinary team, including cardiac physiologists, physiotherapists and psychologists. Together, we can help you:
- Understand your condition through specialist diagnostic testing
- Recover strength, movement and independence
- Manage emotional wellbeing, including anxiety or low mood
We also offer a cardiac rehabilitation programme, with education, lifestyle advice and guided exercise to support your recovery and reduce future risk.
Your clinical team will guide you to the right support services and arrange referrals where needed.
Useful resources
Cardiac surgery school
Our cardiac surgery school helps people preparing for heart surgery feel calmer, better informed and more confident.
The monthly sessions bring together patients, families and the clinical team to explain the surgical journey in simple, reassuring terms. There is time to ask questions, hear what to expect and share practical tips.
Patients learn how to prepare for their operation and how to support their recovery afterwards. This preparation can help reduce complications and improve recovery times.
All sessions take place in the Morris Lecture Theatre, Robin Brooke Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
You can register for an upcoming session and access support with getting here, if needed. You can also read more about Surgery School in our news story.
- If you have any questions, please email bartshealth.cardiacsurgeryschool@nhs.net.
Rehabilitation programme
- This programme is for local patients who have experienced chest pain, a heart attack or any other cardiac condition. During the programme, you’ll learn more about your heart and how to reduce the risk of future problems.
More about our Psychological Services
Barts Heart Centre (BHC) Psychological Services provides a confidential psychological therapy service for patients at St Bartholomew’s Hospital under the following teams:
- Adult Congenital Cardiology
- Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions
- Electrophysiology (including people with devices)
- Heart Attack Centre (heart attacks and cardiac arrests)
- Critical Care Follow Up Clinic
- Heart Failure
We are a specialist service offering psychological therapy and art therapy connected to what it’s like to live with a heart condition. We work with inpatients and outpatients, and we also work with family members of patients.
Living with a long-term heart problem or having a heart event can cause a range of emotions including fear, sadness, anger, guilt and numbness. Some people might feel scared about procedures or doing everyday activities, some might worry about the future and their health, some might feel resentful about the limits that the heart problem or device might bring. Families might also feel worried or sad and may notice a change in their relationship.
We specialise in supporting people to manage their emotional wellbeing related to having a heart problem or a heart event. We might offer you coping strategies, some ways of exploring your identity or relationship with your heart problem or help to understand why you might be struggling emotionally.
After people are referred to our service, we offer a brief telephone assessment to talk about the main difficulties and hopes for support.
Our options for therapeutic support include:
- workshops – including ‘Life after a Heart Attack’ or ‘Life after a Cardiac Arrest’
- psychological therapy – online, telephone or face-to-face at St Bartholomew’s Hospital
- art therapy – mainly offered face-to-face at St Bartholomew’s Hospital
- joint working and consultation with the medical and/or surgical teams
We normally offer short term interventions (up to six sessions) and often refer or signpost to other psychological services if needed.
Contact us on 020 3765 8807 or bartshealth.bhcpsychology@nhs.net with any questions or to cancel or rearrange an appointment.