Aortic Specialist Nurse service launched by national patient charity
Posted on 16th January 2025
Aortic Dissection patients can now book an appointment in a virtual Aortic Specialist Nurse clinic, led by Emma Hope, as award-winning national patient charity Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland launches its Aortic Specialist Nurse service.
Emma was the UK’s first Aortic Specialist Nurse, pioneering at Southampton General Hospital a service that is loved by patients and valued by the clinicians who make up the multidisciplinary Aortic team. Encouraged by the national patient charity, other specialist Aortic centres have followed Southampton’s lead and appointed their own Aortic Specialist Nurses, including Barts, the Royal Brompton & Harefield, Guys & St. Thomas's, Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital and University Hospitals Sussex.
Gareth Owens, Founding Chair of the national patient charity said: “Since Emma demonstrated the value for Southampton patients, having an Aortic Specialist Nurse service has become for us one of the hallmarks of an excellent specialist Aortic centre. However, we needed to do something for our patient members who are under the care of hospitals that currently do not provide such a service. I'm delighted that patients can now book an appointment with Emma directly, as part of the support the charity provides”.
Retiring from the NHS last summer after 41 years of nursing at Southampton General Hospital, Emma joined the national patient charity as its first Aortic Specialist Nurse. In this new role, she will run a virtual clinic one day a week for the charity’s 1,500+ patient members; provide professional expertise to the leaders of the charity’s “AD Buddies” patient support group together with the Medical Advisors; maintain strong working relationships with other Aortic Specialist Nurses working in the NHS; and help Aortic centres that want to appoint their own Aortic Specialist Nurses to define the role and set-up their services.
Bridget Lawrence, one of the charity’s AD Buddy Group Administrators, who is a nurse herself and cares for her husband, a Type A Aortic Dissection survivor, said: “Emma is a fount of knowledge on all things Aortic and patients love her. We are delighted that she has joined the charity as our first Aortic Specialist Nurse and I am very happy to be working with her.”
Emma Hope says “Being the UK’s first Aortic Specialist Nurse has been the pinnacle of my career. I love working with Aortic patients and have been involved with the wonderful AD Awareness UK & Ireland national patient charity for some years now. When the opportunity arose to join the charity and continue my work with patients part-time in retirement, I jumped at the chance.”
Aortic Dissection patients can now book a virtual appointment with Emma for one of her weekly clinics, starting on 4th February 2025. For details and how to book, visit the Aortic Specialist Nurses page of the charity's website.
