Hundreds line up to get their hearts checked

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Medtronic and the NHS have teamed up to bring a simple easy heart check to cities all across the UK, and in Cardiff it had its busiest day yet. Hundreds of people queued up for hours before it opened to get seen, with cardiologists from the Heath coming down to help. It’s hoped lives can be saved with the simple screening.

Transcript

00:01Thousands of people all across Wales suffer with heart disease and various

00:05cardiological issues. It's not always easy to get checks especially on the NHS

00:09it's very unlikely you can get a single-day check but the Your Heart

00:12Matters bus is coming around cities and towns all across the UK is here in

00:16Cardiff today and hundreds of people have turned out to make sure that

00:20everything's okay with the old ticker. Fantastic I can't believe it we've been

00:24waiting since 10 o'clock but we're very happy to wait it's a very good service

00:28very very important obviously preventative action is very important

00:33my dad had quadruple plus one heart bypass 15 years ago the NHS is marvelous

00:40they work very very hard they're doing a tremendous job today and prevention is

00:45better than cure. Yeah I think that's exactly it it's just doing your own MOT

00:49finding out if everything's okay and if not what you could do to prevent anything

00:54going wrong I think there's there's a lot of initiatives that you can get

00:58involved with to find out what's going on with your body the NHS do an awful lot of

01:04good screening things and we should all take advantage of them take the pressure

01:09off the NHS. Well I've seen it advertised and I thought I'm coming up to 66 this

01:14year and thought I'd get my heart checked out to see what it's all about. Today is

01:18about raising awareness around cardiac health and we're working in

01:23collaboration with Cardiff and Veil health board and third sector to deliver

01:27this session and it's fantastic so people have come out in really high numbers to

01:33to get some of these tests done and and it's an opportunity for people to speak to

01:38clinicians to get a bit of a to get a check and should there be the need we've got

01:44the technology and we've got the expertise on board to to follow that

01:47through. And heart valve disease can be something that sneaks up on patients

01:52creeps up on you insidiously and can affect you in terms of your symptoms so

01:57symptoms that are often attributed to just plain old aging can actually be

02:03sometimes due to degeneration of valves that occur of which there are four in the

02:09heart two predominant ones that function can get worse as one gets over. For the

02:15vast majority of people who come out here today the check will be a simple few

02:19minute job and they'll be out with it all clear but if doctors are concerned

02:23there could be an issue that inside this truck is some high-tech equipment that you

02:26can usually only find in hospitals and you can get checked and then find out if

02:30there are any more serious problems. And indeed some of my colleagues have been

02:34doing it all morning picked up some significant valve narrowings who are

02:38actually on waiting lists to see myself and other heart colleagues both in

02:44Cardiff and in the greater South Wales area to pick that up today. So we've got

02:49to make sure that those patients who do pick up significant murmurs on today get

02:53expedited and get seen pretty quickly that we recognize and get treated soon.

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