Diagnostic healthcare professionals

Trainee echo technicians

The main objective of funding these posts was to increase the pool of British Society of Echocardiography (BSE) accredited echo technicians within the NHS and to provide a more effective and efficient echo service.

The initiative was launched in 2000 in conjunction with the BSE, who oversaw and accredited the trainee scheme. By the end of this initiative, due to finish in early 2009 the BHF will have funded 51 echo trainee posts across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

A survey of past echo technicians showed that close to 95% of echo trainees found permanent positions at the end of their training within the hospital where they were trained.  This demonstrated that the key purpose of creating new posts within the NHS echo services, through this initiative, has been achieved. Another indicator of the success of this training programme was that many trainees went on to become trainers themselves within their hospital.

As a result of this scheme, approximately 1000 extra echo studies a week are now being performed across the UK and with greater diagnostic services fewer patients are requiring invasive procedures.

Cardiac physiologist trainers

Cardiac physiologists are health care professionals who are involved in diagnostic testing and perform a variety of procedures including ECGs, 24 hour blood pressure checks, echo scans, transthoracic echocardiogram, implantable cardioverter defibrillator(ICD) Clinics and pacing implants.

In 2007 we embarked on a new initiative, investing nearly 2 million pounds to support the continuing professional development of the cardiac physiology workforce.

The investment has gone towards ten cardiac physiology trainer posts that will seek to improve cardiac physiology services by:

• organising and delivering the training and continuing professional development of cardiac physiologists throughout the network area
  
• working across organisational and professional boundaries, raising the standard of clinical practice, sharing good practice and improving patient care through a co-ordinated network approach to training
  
• identifying future developments in cardiac physiology services and making recommendations for developments in training provision to meet evolving service needs
  
• driving service change by designing and implementing training as an integral part of service redesign
  
• raising the profile of the cardiac physiology profession to encourage more people to enter the profession after school/university.

With BHF support in developing these cardiac physiology trainer posts throughout the UK, it is anticipated that there will be an urgently needed increase in the number of cardiac physiologists to fill the gap between the demand for improved cardiac services and the short supply of these specialist posts.

To find out more about the diagnostics programme, please contact diagnostics@bhf.org.uk

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