The Hospital Saturday Fund Grant Success

In the first quarter of this year, Children’s Heartbeat Trust were delighted to present the Adult Congenital Heart team at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) with another batch of CoaguChek INR machines for young adults living with CHD as part of our Home Monitoring Programme.

This was possible thanks to a supporting grant from The Hospital Saturday Fund of £2,000 which helped us to purchase 10 CoaguChek INR machines for patient use.

INR tests are a vital part of treatment for patients with CHD who are on anti-coagulants such as warfarin.  This equipment can be life changing for young adult patients as it enables them to monitor their INR at home rather than having to make regular visits to the hospital.

This ‘Home Monitoring Programme’ is delivered in partnership with the Adult Congenital Cardiology nursing team at the RVH who provide specialist training on how to use this equipment to each young person.

This home-monitoring approach has many benefits to a young person:

• As these vital checks can be done at home, the young person will have to visit the hospital less frequently. As such their normal routines of home and school will be less disrupted.
• Home monitoring improves and encourages regular checking of a young person’s condition and allows the team based in the specialist centre to access accurate information quickly.
• The implementation of this programme will also encourage young adults to have increased engagement with their heart condition. It is widely accepted that the earlier a young person is engaged with their medical care, the more likely they are to understand and comply with medical advice as they become more independent.

We are so pleased to be able to help significantly with this equipment thanks to the support of The Hospital Saturday Fund.

Pictured receiving the machines are Adult Cardiology Clinical Nurse Specialists Jan and Linda who do an incredible job providing support to hundreds of young people and adults living with CHD across Northern Ireland.