Heart Failure: UCLH

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Care for patients with suspected heart failure (HF). If your patient has a confirmed diagnosis of HF, consider a referral to the Community Heart Failure service.

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusions

  • Patients referred to the HF clinic should have symptoms or signs of heart failure and a NT pro BNP >400ng/l
  • Patients with NT pro BNP >2000ng/l should be marked as urgent
  • If a patient is known to be in atrial fibrillation (AF), the NT pro BNP will often be raised and the GP may wish to consider doing an echocardiogram prior to referring to clinic in these situations.

How to Refer

Letter

Referral methods: e-Referrals

Refer via e-RS

Routine referrals

If NT-pro-BNP 400-2000 pg/ml. Patients should be seen within six weeks: GPs are encouraged to organise an Echo at the receiving trust in the interim and update other tests which you feel are appropriate and may include ECG, CXR, urine dip and bloods for FBC, U&E, LFT, HbA1c, TFT and lipids.

An ECG, Echocardiogram and bloods will be repeated during the HF clinic appointment (may take up to three hours).

Urgent referrals

Refer directly to the hospital cardiology/heart failure service: use this if NT-pro-BNP>2000 pg/ml or there is a history of IHD and symptoms suggesting HF such as dyspnoea, fluid retention, fatigue.​ 

An ECG, Echocardiogram and bloods will be repeated during the HF clinic appointment (may take up to three hours).

How to find service on e-RS

  • Specialty: Cardiology
  • Clinic type: Hear Failure
  • Service name: Hear Failure – Cardiology Dept – UCLH

Service Feedback

uclh.cardiology@nhs.net 07966 770 639

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Review date: Thursday, 05 February 2026