International honour as St George’s picks up another Centre of Excellence accreditation
The blood pressure unit at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, has been recognised as a hypertension Centre of Excellence for providing the highest standards of care to its patients.
The prestigious title was awarded by the European Society of Hypertension for demonstrating that the unit’s staff are highly skilled and investigate, diagnose and treat large numbers of patients, some of whom have very complex medical needs. The way that staff use their involvement in research to improve outcomes for patients suffering with blood pressure-related problems was also commended. Furthermore, the unit was identified as having access to state-of-the-art facilities.
The unit is one of only five to be awarded the status in 2013 by the European Society of Hypertension, an organisation committed to the prevention of hypertension and cardiovascular problems. There are 154 centres worldwide that currently hold this impressive accreditation.
Dr Tarek Antonios, the unit’s lead consultant, said: “This accreditation is an honour and recognises the high standard of care we provide to our patients. It is also a testament to the quality and expertise of our fantastic nursing and medical staff.”
The blood pressure unit is the only one of its kind in the region, taking patients with complex blood pressure problems from across southeast England.
St George’s is an accredited centre of excellence for trauma, neurology, cardiology and cancer services, and the national centre for family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases.
Dr Antonios receiving the Hypertension Centre of Excellence Diploma at the European Society of Hypertension’s annual scientific meeting in Milan, Italy in June 2013.
(l-r): Professor M Viigimaa, council member, Professor J Redon, President, European Society of Hypertension, Dr Tarek Antonios and Professor P Nilsson, secretary.
Notes to editors
For more information and for high resolution photography, please contact the Communications Unit on 020 8725 5151 or email: communications@stgeorges.nhs.uk. Outside working hours, please page us by calling 0844 822 2888, leaving a short message and contact details for pager SG548. High res photos available on request.
About the blood pressure unit
The blood pressure unit offers 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to diagnose hypertension according to NICE guidelines. It also provides investigations for secondary hypertension and management of resistant and severe hypertension
