National Heart Centre Singapore
-Specialist Outpatient Clinics

Patients referred by primary care physicians or polyclinics for diagnosis and management of their heart related conditions are seen at the Cardiology Clinics, the entry point for access to specialised heart care.

They are run by a team of more than 30 cardiac specialists with expertise in every aspect of cardiac care.

If patients require sub-specialised care, they will be referred to the other sub-specialty clinics as follows:

1.Cardiothoracic Surgery Clinic
This clinic is for patients who are referred by cardiologists and require open-heart surgery or have just undergone some form of heart surgery.

2.Anticoagulation Clinic
This clinic is for patients on anticoagulants (blood-thinners) and need close monitoring.

3.Adult Congenital Heart Disease
(ACHD) Clinic
This clinic looks after patients with operated as well as unoperated congenital heart conditions from age 16 onwards. Adults with congenital heart disease need regular monitoring and sometimes further surgical interventions. It also screens suspected Marfan patients and monitors ACHD patients closely during pregnancy.

4.Heart Failure Clinic
The clinic adopts a team approach to treat heart failure through a structured outpatient programme to prolong survival, improve quality of life and reduce hospital admissions. A specialist nurse clinician is on hand to provide phone consultations to patients.

5.Heart Transplantation Clinic
This clinic provides pre-and post-transplant care for patients on the waiting list for a heart transplant or who have undergone a heart transplantation.

6.Lung Transplantation Clinic
This clinic provides pre-and post- lung transplant care and treats patients with primary pulmonary hypertension.

Cardiology Clinic (Children)
The clinic is the main paediatric cardiology referral centre in Singapore. It provides comprehensive care for congenital and acquired heart problems of neonates to young adults. The catheter-based interventions it offers include dilatation of heart valves and narrowed vessels as well as closure of cardiac shunts like patent ductus arteriosus and atrial septal defects.

The clinic also has access to a wide range of diagnostic modalities such as the electrocardiogram, 24-hour ambulatory holter monitoring, two-dimensional echocardiography including fetal and transesophageal echocardiogram, and cineangiography that are required when managing complex heart conditions.

Cardiothoracic Clinic (Children)
The clinic provides complete care for all elective and emergency cardiothoracic surgeries in infants, children and adolescents up to 18 years of age. It also provides in-patient care of children needing cardiothoracic surgery or surgical review as well as outpatient pre- and post-operative assessment and follow-up care.

Coronary Screening Test (Women)
(CT calcium Scoring Test)
This is a quick non-invasive scan to evaluate the risk of heart-attack. The test uses the latest 64 multi-slice computerised tomography (CT) machine to detect areas of hardening in the arteries that supply blood to the heart.

With calcium as a marker of plaque in the heart's arteries, the test calculates the amount of calcium depositing on the plaque in the patient's arteries. The more plaque a patient has in her arteries, the higher her risks of a heart attack.

The test is available as an optional test in our women wellness health programmes.

Weight Management Clinic
(Women & Children)
The Weight Management Clinic offers
a comprehensive programme which aims to help overweight women and children lose weight the healthy way.

The programme is managed by a multidisciplinary team of specialists such as the endocrinologists, sports physicians, dietitians and physiotherapists.

Its objective is to help the individuals achieve significant and sustained weight loss by inculcating healthy eating habits, regular exercise, and other practical lifestyle changes.

Concurrent health problems will also be managed in tandem with the weight loss therapy. Aesthetic procedures and surgery to aid weight loss are also available for suitable patients.

For more information and appointments, please contact
tel: 6294 4050 or
fax: 6293 7933
www.kkh.com.sg

Cardiology Services
CGH has a strong team of cardiologists.  Besides treating Singapore patients with heart problems, they also provide emergency treatment for many air transit international patients who develop cardiac complaints, such as chest pains. There are two main categories of cardiac procedures offered:

Invasive cardiac procedures
• Pacemaker therapy
• Right and left heart cardiac catherisation
• Coronary angiography

Non-invasive cardiac procedures
• Cardiology consultations in hospital wards or outpatient clinics
• Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
• Ambulatory electrocardiography
• Exercise stress test
• Head-up tilt test
• Stress echocardiography
• Transesophageal echocardiography
• Transthoracic echocardiography
• Pacemaker check

Heart Failure Programme
This programme is a multidisciplinary
disease management program involving the cardiologist, nurse, pharmacist, dietitian, physiotherapist, and occupational therapist. It aims to improve outcomes in patients with heart failure with better quality of life and reduced re-admissions.

This is done by providing appropriate, affordable and more accessible management in both the hospital ward and outpatient setting. All new heart failure admissions will be enrolled into the inpatient heart failure program. The more "at risk" heart failure patients will be offered participation in the outpatient heart failure program.

Acute Myocardial Infarction Programme
Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction(AMI) have to be treated quickly as this is a condition with a high mortality rate.

This programme represents a coordinated effort by medical, nursing and allied health staff to ensure that patients go through timely treatment for myocardial infarction and aremonitored and treated according to clinical guidelines. In the course of the hospitalisation, a cardiac rehabilitation team of dietitian, physiotherapist and occupational therapists will work with patients to initiate and maintain lifestyle modification. Patients will be assessed individually and guided on the return to normal activities. They will also be motivated to be actively involved in their heart health and can continue with cardiac rehabilitation after discharge.

Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory
CGH's Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory is fully equipped and staffed by experienced interventional cardiologists, nurses and technicians.

AMI patients who are deemed suitable for an emergency balloon angioplasty or in medical term, a Percutaneous Transcoronary Angioplasty (PTCA), will have the test done at the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory. Aside from PTCA, the laboratory also carries out cardiac catheterisation, which is a special x-ray study of the heart that involves the insertion of soft narrow plastic tubes called catheters via blood vessels into the heart.

Clinical Measurement Unit
The CGH Clinical Measurement Unit conducts various cardiac investigations, including:
• 12 Lead Electrocardiography
• 24 Hour Ambulatory ECG Monitoring
• Dobutamine-Stress Echocardiography
• Exercise Stress Echocardiography
• Transthoracic Echocardiography
• Signal Averaging Electrocardiography
• Treadmill Exercise Test

For more information and appointments, please contact
tel: (65) 6850 3333 or
fax: (65) 6781 1193
www.cgh.com.sg

This publication is part of the SingHealth Healthy Living Series, a programme that aims to provide useful health information for the general public.

For more information on other topics in the series and other health information, please go to www.singhealth.com.sg

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