UK’s First Cardio Metabolic Clinic at St Georges University Hospital, London

Our teams have established an innovative, specialist new clinic for patients with heart failure and metabolic disease – the first of its kind in the UK.

The new clinic – which was officially opened in October 2020 - has been set up by Dr Rajay Narain, Consultant Cardiologist, and Dr Mimi Chen, Consultant Endocrinologist at St George’s with the support of external charitable funds. 

Jacqueline Totterdell, Chief Executive of St George’s opened the clinic, and the event was attended by other members of the cardiology and diabetes teams, including Dr Raj Sharma, Clinical Director for Cardiology, and Dr Lisa Anderson, who heads up the heart failure service.

The new service will provide support and specialist care to approximately 15 patients weekly, specifically those who suffer from heart failure and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and morbid obesity.

Recent evidence suggests that heart failure is more common in people with diabetes when compared with the general population. The combined impact of these conditions on people’s health can be significant, with a range of unique symptoms, including shortness of breath, swelling in the legs, and diabetes-related complications. Patients suffering from these conditions often require frequent medical inputs in the community, and in hospitals.

Dr Narain, who has worked at St George’s for over eight years, said: “This is a big step forward for us, and patients who have both heart failure and diabetes and thousands of our patients will benefit from this service. We already provide specialist heart failure and diabetes services for patients here at the Trust. However, by bringing clinicians from both specialties into one service, we can improve the service we offer for patients with both conditions.”

Dr Chen, who is the Care Group Lead for Diabetes & Endocrinology and current Diabetes UK Clinical Champion, said: "This is an exciting collaboration of the two services that will hugely benefit our patients in the local community, and encourage even better health care for patients with complex cardiac and metabolic diseases."

The clinic at St George’s will be staffed by two consultants and a specialist nurse in the first instance. They will run weekly clinic sessions, with plans to expand to twice a week by the middle of 2021. The team expects to treat as many as 75 patients every month. Patients will be seen either virtually or in the hospital, as required. Internal referral and triaging is via email cardio-metabolic@stgeorges.nhs.uk.