SCOTLAND could become a world-leader in the care of adults born with heart defects following the major expansion of a national unit with internationally renowned specialists.
Dr Gruschen Veldtman, formerly of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the USA has been appointed to the Scottish Adult Congenital Cardiac Service (SACCS) which is based at the Golden Jubilee hospital in Clydebank, where the most complex surgery is carried out.
Dr Veldtman, helped set up a centre of excellence for the speciality in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.
The unit will be bolstered by Consultant Cardiologist Dr Lorna Swan, who has worked at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and Toronto General Hospital in Canada, which is considered among the best heart centres in the world.
READ MORE: Heart scanner at Glasgow hospital will make Scotland world-leader in fetal medicine
Two other specialists have been appointed, including Dr Hamish Walker, who has expertise in MRI imaging.
Dr Swan said having five congenital heart specialists gives "Scotland a major advantage" because it will allow the team to upskill other hospitals to offer care to patients closer to home while Dr Veldtman said the national service now boasted a combination of good clinical service and academic potential which he said was "very rare".
According to latest figures in Scotland, there are approximately 18,240 adults (age 16 and over) who have congenital heart disease (CHD), which is in the spotlight this week in a world-wide awareness campaign. Around 10 per cent deemed to have complex conditions - and the figure is rising every year.
Historically, very few children survived to adulthood but outcomes for patients have been transformed by diagnostic and treatment advances over the last few decades. However patients require life-long care and repeat and complex surgical interventions.
(L to R Dr Gruschen Veldtman, Dr Lorna Swan, Dr Niki Walker, Dr Hamish Walker and Dr Amanda Hunter)
Two other specialists have also been appointed to the team; Dr Amanda Hunter, who trained at NHS Golden Jubilee and the Royal Brompton, and Dr Hamish Walker, who previously worked at the Golden Jubilee and renowned centres in Southampton and Leeds.
READ MORE: Mediterannean diet with green tea 'even better' for heart health
Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Niki Walker, Clinical Lead for SACCS, said: “Children born with congenital heart disease are now surviving well into adulthood, often requiring further care and interventions.
"Thanks to this expansion in our team, we will now be able to offer a wider clinical service at the Golden Jubilee and support more outreach clinics.
"This is especially important in the current pandemic.
“SACCS has always been committed to the highest possible standard of care, and with these high calibre additions to our team, we now have a huge opportunity to deliver a world class service to benefit the patients of Scotland.”
READ MORE: Heart function may play key role in survival from Covid
Dr Lorna Swan, who has been a Consultant Cardiologist for 15 years added: “With this level of expertise there is a real opportunity to capitalise on international best practice and innovative methods as we have worked in other fantastic units and can bring all of our experience together into this one specialist unit.
“Our model gives Scotland a major advantage. We can now offer additional bespoke outreach care at regional centres and help upskill them to offer care to patients near to their home, while the more complex treatments are still carried out at NHS Golden Jubilee.
"We also have a highly regarded, specialist nursing team, which is an advantage other centres in the world do not have.”
The unit works closely with the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, which treats children with heart problems up to the age of 16.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel