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Welsh cardiologists urge over 60s to come to Cardiff Bay for simple check for deadly hidden heart disease

28 Apr 2025 4 minute read
Your Heart Matters truck – Image: Valve for Life UK

Welsh cardiologists are urging people over 60 to come to Cardiff Bay for a simple check for a deadly hidden heart disease.

It’s estimated are over 250,000 people in Wales aged 60+ living with undiagnosed Heart Valve Disease (HVD).

Cardiologists from the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) are warning about this hidden heart problem – which has worse outcomes than cancer if it’s not diagnosed in time – that occurs when one or more valves in the heart stops working well.

HVD puts extra strain on the heart and increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and death.

Checks

A team of heart specialists will be visiting the Cardiff Bay area (Roald Dahl Plass) on Wednesday 7 May to offer free heart checks to the general public.

Professor Richard Anderson, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at the University Hospital of Wales and Board Member of the UK Valve for Life Initiative said: “Most people do not realise how deadly heart valve disease is, but by contrast how ‘every day’ the symptoms of it are.

“A team of heart specialists are coming out into the community and our aim is to perform hundreds of heart checks on older people who might not know they have a serious heart issue.”

Most people think of heart trouble as sudden stabbing pain in the chest or pins and needles down one arm – but in fact HVD symptoms can be much more subtle.

Subtle

The disease can cause mild symptoms often mistaken for normal ageing such as breathlessness, weariness and fatigue.

HVD is treatable and when detected early, surgery or minimally-invasive procedures can restore quality of life.

However, there is a huge disparity in the UK when it comes to HVD with Welsh patients in particular facing a number of unique challenges.

The specialised healthcare providers offering treatment procedures in Wales (University of Wales Hospital and Morriston Hospital in Swansea) are currently facing waiting list and cost pressures.

Therefore some Welsh patients wait long periods of time for both their cardiac investigations and their treatments.

Heart charity Valve for Life UK has warned that this can compromise a patients clinical care.

Wales also has much higher numbers living in rural locations. Clinicians at University of Wales Hospital (Cardiff) say that some patients who cannot drive travel around 2 hours each way to get to their medical appointments.

If services are not running well, this can lead to patients missing critical appointments.

Diverse

Cardiff is a culturally diverse areas with hard-to-reach populations who may not engage in
health services in a typical way.

UK data suggests that white people, particularly those born in the UK and with English as their first language, are more likely to be diagnosed with a heart condition, referred to a Cardiologist and treated.

A recent study found that Black or South Asian patients were less likely to receive aortic valve replacement surgeries than white people.

One study of HVD treatment found almost all (96%) were performed on white people.

Interventional Cardiologist Dr Omar Aldalati said: “Cardiff is a very multicultural areas, but we have observed that we see lower referrals from the South Asian and Middle Eastern communities than we would expect.

“Some barriers to seeing medical professionals and getting a referral to cardiology might be lack of car ownership or driving license, language struggles or concerns over modesty during examinations.

“There is also, I believe, cultural expectations of frailty in older people, so when an elder person in the family feels weary or tired all the time, they are looked after or encouraged to rest, rather than take charge of their own health and seek medical attention.”


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jimmy
jimmy
10 days ago

There’s a glaring disconnect here…find more patients with heart problems early….fantastic, but then you don’t have the capacity to treat them any way.

Erisian
Erisian
10 days ago

Just Cardiff?
What about the rest of Wales?
Plenty of places with big enough car parks.
I’d love a check up but I can’t be driving a 120m round trip to get it.

J.davies
J.davies
9 days ago
Reply to  Erisian

Exactly what I thought

Arfon Jones
Arfon Jones
10 days ago

30% of the population of Wales live in the north. Will we have the opportunity to be screened?

Jules
Jules
10 days ago

Hi I’m 44 female been told I got two small leaky heart valves. Would i be able to go to this screening?

Yvonne
Yvonne
9 days ago

I also would like to know if an appointment is needed or do people just queue?

jimmy
jimmy
9 days ago
Ian Papworth
Ian Papworth
9 days ago

Long way to Cardiff bay from Prestatyn

Philip
Philip
2 days ago

I turned up at just after 10 and waited. The medics did not show up.

Mike
Mike
1 day ago
Reply to  Philip

Is the lorry there with no medics? Can someone let me know please because I was planning to drive there.

Eddie
Eddie
1 day ago
Reply to  Mike

I was there at 10am and everything was up and running. Long queue but they were dealing with it quite quickly although it’s very general heart check.

Mike
Mike
1 day ago
Reply to  Eddie

Thank you Eddie! Everyone note it is for over 50s not over 60s as the article says

Eddie
Eddie
1 day ago
Reply to  Philip

It was up and running before 10am.

David Holton
David Holton
13 minutes ago

Will there be another one of these soon? My parents missed this as they were away

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