Heart scan service earns national accreditation
Patients undergoing heart scans at our trust hospitals can be confident in the quality of their care after it was recognised by industry experts.
The echocardiogram service at Barts Health has received accreditation from the British Society of Echocardiography, a formal process recognised as "a benchmark of quality standards and practice".
An echocardiogram, or "echo", is a scan used to look at the heart and nearby blood vessels.
It's a type of ultrasound scan, which means a small probe is used to send out high-frequency sound waves that create echoes when they bounce off different parts of the body.
Barts Health is home to the largest echocardiography service in the UK, performing more than 50,000 tests per year across four hospital sites.
Dr Sanjeev Bhattacharyya, a consultant cardiologist at Barts Heart Centre and clinical lead for echocardiography said: "This prestigious award is major recognition of the quality of our work, our training and education programmes, and quality assurance standards.
"The team have worked incredibly hard to make sure patients across north east London have access to the highest quality care no matter which hospital they visit or where they live.
"The department is also one of only three UK centres to achieve Advanced European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Accreditation."
Formed in 1990, the British Society of Echocardiography is a registered charity which represents clinical echocardiography professionals in the UK.
Its accreditation programme demonstrates that a department meets an established and robust quality standard and is delivering for patients.
Pictured: a team of sonographers at Barts Health NHS Trust
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