A SCHEME has offered fresh hope to people struck down by heart problems in North Yorkshire – and saved the health service hundreds of thousands of pounds.

NHS bosses in the county have now taken over the funding of two specialist nurses in Ryedale, whose help allows patients to be rehabilitated at home and avoids hospital admissions.

The nurses were appointed four years ago following funding from the British Heart Foundation.

Their funding, about £60,000 a year, has now been adopted by NHS North Yorkshire and York Primary, with continuing support for further training and development from the charity.

The nurses can take referrals from GPs or hospital cardiologists, who identify patients that could benefit from help in the community.

They devise a suitable treatment plan, ensure a patient’s medication is appropriate and educate them on their condition, so they can manage it better and hopefully avoid hospital admissions.

A report on the heart failure nurses’ activity in their first year calculated they had saved the NHS around £400,000 in treatment costs, and reduced hospital readmissions for heart failure by 33 per cent.

The two nurses now have about 150 patients on their books in Ryedale, Scarborough and Whitby.

They can monitor a patient’s condition in their own home, but they also run clinics at Malton and Whitby Hospitals.

Among those who have benefited is Sally Shepherdson, 36, from Sherburn, near Malton, who received help from the scheme after developing a rare heart condition earlier this year.

She was diagnosed with postpartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) three months after giving birth to her second child, Kirsten, in February last year.

PPCM is the development of heart failure, which can occur in the last month of pregnancy or within five months after delivery, without an identifiable cause in a previously healthy woman. It is a rare condition which carries a high risk of mortality.

Sally was initially treated in Scarborough Hospital, but was then referred to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle to see specialists in the transplant assessment unit. She said: “When I first found out about my condition I was totally shocked and couldn’t get my head round it. I was told I would need to stay in hospital for a long time – I couldn’t believe it.

“The doctors also told me that if I didn’t respond to medication the only outcome would be a transplant. However, they put me on a cocktail of drugs and, luckily, I responded well.

“Because I responded really well I was in hospital for only eight days, but I was worried about coping once I came out. My cardiologist referred me to Janet Raw – one of the local heart failure nurses who covered my patch.

“Janet’s been worth her weight in gold and I couldn’t have managed without her. She was able to explain my condition and my medication in a way I could understand. She would also manage my drugs and monitor my blood pressure and weight regularly.

“When I was having problems with my medication she would get me appointments with my GP and cardiologist at short notice.

“Janet also really helped to lift my spirits. She is a real optimist and she’d always make me feel better even when I was feeling very low. I still feel very tired all the time, but I’ve made a lot of progress since my diagnosis.

“My consultants have said the future is very uncertain and that they will never be complacent about my condition, but if I keep going in the right direction then transplant would be the least likely outcome.

“I will be on medication for long time, with close contact with my heart failure nurse and regular visits to see my cardiologists in Scarborough and Newcastle. “Despite this, though, I am still hopeful that I may be able to return to work one day in the future.”