Heart murmur

[babychange12]

Paediatrician in the hospital heard a very faint heart murmur in DS when he was about 1 day old and we've been referred to the cardiologist department in the hospital for July. He's 10 weeks old now and gaining lots of weight and seems to be thriving.

I'm nervous about going to the hospital due to coronavirus, just wondering if anyone knows a private cardiologist who we can get an appointment with? Hopefully in a small clinic setting rather than in a huge hospital!

My daughter is seen at GOSH for her cardiology appointments at the moment they are only giving appointments to those who really need to be seen so the clinics will be far quieter than normal. This seems to be what other cardiology units are doing all over the country too from the FB heart group posts i am seeing.
Most private cardiologists also work in the NHS so although private hospital may be smaller cardiologist would still be working elsewhere.
What area of the country are you in?

Most private work has stopped at the moment to redeploy the medics back into the NHS or to use the private hospitals to see the NHS patients in a safer setting so may not get seen quicker, and will likely be referred to NHS for tests etc.

I manage cardiology in NHS. Adults not paeds admittedly we are as of this week reinstating maybe half of our clinics, and only seeing face to face a small number of urgent patients.

Also as so many clinics are down at the moment waiting rooms are far quieter, a lot of clinics are moving to evening and weekends to reduce the amount of People in OPD. OPD will be quiet and cleaned and the clinician will wear appropriate PPE and change between patients. It will honestly be safer than ever before, and a damn site safer than the super market. Especially in paeds.

If you're concerned call the secretary or PALS for reassurance of the current process.

If you want a private consultation, it depends where you live as to be able to recommend one. Harley Street obviously in London is the best but you practically need to be a millionaire to afford the consultation. Look up Spire, Nuffield Health, Ramsay or BUPA paediatric cardiologists and see if there are any branches local to you then research the medics working for them.

North west private hospital first appointment for cardiology adults is about £100 before any tests or medication. Not sure if this is the norm or the same in other areas. Just a ball park figure for you

Hi there, thank you so much for the advice, I really appreciate it. We are in London. Good point about there not being a private practice as they've all been redeployed.

Not sure if we qualify as urgent as the dr at the time said it was a very faint murmur! DS was born early March before lockdown and the appointment letter came before lockdown as well, so there was a 4 month delay, which the midwife said it meant that it was likely an innocent murmur.

That's reassuring about PPE/cleaning, so hopefully our appointment goes ahead. I'm paranoid about lifts so will try to avoid them!

If you’re going to the Brompton it’s on the 1st/second floor but quite close to the entrance. The waiting room is quite small but I think you should be able to distance - at least he won’t be rummaging through the toys! My DS went there and his problem resolved itself, hope it’s the same for yours.