Setting new standards for specialist integrated cardiac care

Royal Philips and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust announced a seven-year managed service agreement to deliver on the Trusts’ vision to set new standards of excellence for cardiac care in the UK and globally.

The partnership will combine the latest innovations in technology for integrated cardiovascular solutions to deliver on the quadruple aim: better health outcomes, lower cost of care, and an improved experience for patients and staff. The service improvement program will support the co-design of new patient pathways and workflows, all with the aim of delivering the best care experience for patients. “The Cardiology team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals are very proud of the quality of cardiac care we are able to deliver for our patients,” said Dr Chris Pepper, Clinical Director for Cardiology at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. “We see this partnership as a hugely exciting and positive opportunity to improve this further. We look forward to being able to provide state-of-the-art cardiac imaging as part of a highly efficient and forward-looking cardiology service for the people of Leeds and West Yorkshire. We also look forward to a positive and collaborative working relationship with Philips.”

The agreement includes six fully featured interventional cardiac suites based on the Philips Azurion platform, including two specialized electrophysiology suites and a structural heart suite, as well as advanced patient monitoring and ultrasound systems. The Azurion platform provides an intuitive, seamless approach for minimally invasive procedures that will support Leeds’ clinicians to focus on treating the patient, and its administrators as they strive to improve productivity and efficiency through intelligent resource management. Dr Pepper continued, “We are now working through the backlog of patients and other challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to keep services running and have been supported through our partnership with Philips including in reorganizing lab allocations and maintaining patient flow, which has been of substantial benefit. Our cath labs are an essential part of our operations, so when two of our systems recently needed urgent repair, we were happy that Philips was able to resolve the issues without impact on our daily workflow. Our state-of-the-art ultrasound systems have also helped us maintain efficiency after the first wave of COVID-19 patients and will help streamline and facilitate further recovery.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown what we can achieve when we combine our collective resources to combat an urgent, complex challenge
Neil Mesher

"Cardiovascular disease is one of the world’s leading causes of death and in the UK we are now seeing more people dying of heart disease at younger ages than in previous years,” said Neil Mesher, General Manager of Philips UK & Ireland. “The COVID-19 pandemic has shown what we can achieve when we combine our collective resources to combat an urgent, complex challenge. It’s with this spirit that we look forward to working side-by-side with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to improve the region’s cardiac health.”

Leeds Cardiac Clinical Services Unit sees over 25,000 patients a year and offers specialist cardiology services to a regional UK population of over 5.4 million across West Yorkshire. As both a local care provider and international specialism centre, the Trust operates an aspirational international innovation programme that not only benefits the local population but also the global cardiology community by developing cutting-edge techniques to meet challenging patient presentations. With both local and international objectives, Leeds has decided to work in partnership with Philips on a long-term basis to ensure these aspirations are met.

29.06.2020