The community team is five heart failure nurse specialists. Their focus is the treatment, education and long-term care of patients with a diagnosis of heart failure.
Our role is to look after patients with in the community and their own homes who have been diagnosed and are living with this condition. We work closely with all primary (GP) and secondary (hospital) care services.
The service can be accessed Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm (not bank holidays).
The best way of contacting the service is via our email:
The service is located throughout North Tyneside and Northumberland. We have offices in Hexham, Alnwick, Blyth, and Monkseaton.
The community heart failure service accepts referrals for patients with a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure, who are registered with a GP within North Tyneside and Northumberland. We aim to medically optimally titrate these patients following the latest guidelines. Our role is to support, educate, promote symptom recognition and management of self-care with these patients as this is a long-term health condition. We provide sub-cutaneous diuretics therapy within the home environment as an admission avoidance tool for decompensating heart failure symptoms and management, and we also input into palliative heart failure care.
The service receives referrals from both our secondary and primary care colleagues. An e-mail can be sent, with patient information and demographics, to the above address. The referral into the service is for all patients who have a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure on ECHO/cMRI. We work with the patients in the community and with the GP/DNs/Pharmacy/Secondary care in medication titration, referrals on to other professionals, and repeat imaging. The community heart failure nurse specialists are a contact and support platform for heart failure patients in managing their condition, and are a professional reference point for heart failure also.
Judith Robson, Heart failure Nurse Specialist, Clinical and Operational Lead
Or email