WITH heart disease being the Highlands' biggest killer, the job of consultant cardiologist Dr Stephen Cross is pretty important.
However, what has aided the care and attention his unit provides to heart patients in the Highlands is equipment bought thanks to proceeds from the Heartbeat Challenge.
The annual family-friendly challenge, involving a 12-mile run or walk over hills, and a 10-mile return by bike in the Clava and Moy areas outside Inverness, is held to raise money for cardiac care at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, and in the Highlands. In four years, the challenge has raised £55,000.
And Dr Cross said items provided by Heartbeat funds have proved a lifeline for patients.
He explained: "Heart disease is the biggest killer in the Highlands and there is a high incidence of coronary artery disease.
"It's caused by an increasingly aging population as people come here to retire, smoking, lack of exercise and lack of healthy diet.
"Funds raised by the Heartbeat Challenge have improved the quality of care we can provide to our patients.
"The challenge is our only fundraiser. Our only other source of donations is from patients and their families."
Cash raised by the 2007 challenge enabled the purchase of an £8,500 transoesophageal echo (TOE) probe, which takes high quality ultrasound pictures of the heart.
Other equipment bought with Heartbeat donations includes a mobile echo cardiac machine, which is transportable around wards.
It cost £50,000, £15,000 of which came from the Heartbeat Challenge. It can be used by itself or with the TOE probe to perform ultrasound scans of the heart.
A diathermy soldering iron which helps creates a bloodless field around wounds when pacemakers are fitted was also bought by Heartbeat cash.
Cash already raised by the challenge is also going towards the £8,000 cost involved in producing an internet learning module.
To be written by staff at the unit, it will provide information about pacemakers and users would be charged £10 to access it.
With this year's cash, they hope to purchase palpitation monitors for GP surgeries to hand out to patients to carry with them for a week to use when they are experiencing heart palpitations.
Normally patients would have to travel to Raigmore to undergo an electrocardiogram, a test which records the rhythm and electrical activity of their heart. Some GPs already have the monitors, which cost £1,200 per practice including software.
Dr Cross explained: "Heart palpitations are increased awareness of the heartbeat. It can be benign or potentially life-threatening.
"Patients can carry these monitors around with them which they can activate when they are having a palpitation.
"This is beneficial as they can do that in their own community rather than having to come to Inverness and it means a quicker diagnosis."
Each year, Raigmore's cardiac unit deals with 2,000 new outpatients, 2,000 returning patients, fits 200 pacemakers, carries out 1,000 coronary angiograms, and 400 angioplasties and stents.
Heart bypasses are done in the Central Belt or Aberdeen.
Aftercare for patients undergoing rehab is provided in the Highland Heartbeat Centre, a purpose-built cardiac facility which opened in November 2005 at Raigmore after the Highland News Group spearheaded a major campaign which raised over £1 million.
There, patients undergo physiotherapy, take part in question and answer sessions with cardiologists, and the unit also includes a seminar room where echo pictures and patient management are discussed.
Urging people to take up the Heartbeat Challenge, Dr Cross said: "You don't have to be an athlete to do it. You just need to be relatively fit and healthy. As well as generating funds, Heartbeat encourages a healthy lifestyle."
Fact file
The Heartbeat Challenge takes place on Saturday, September 10, 2011.
It involves travelling 12 miles of hills by foot, either running or walking, which is followed by a 10-mile return by bike.
The route starts at Clava viaduct, over the Saddle and Pulpit Hills, into the Moy Estate, through Strathnairn, and returning along the old A9.
Children aged between 12 and 15 can also enter along with an adult.
For more information and entries, visit www.heartbeatchallenge.co.uk or email info@heartbeatchallenge.co.uk
