Frequently Asked Questions

For NHS appointments: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Fridays in Harefield Hospital. 

For private appointments: Monday afternoons in The Manor Hospital, Oxford. Tuesday mornings in Harefield Hospital or Wimpole Street Consulting Rooms in London. Wednesday evenings in John Radcliffe Hospital. Friday evenings in Harefield Hospital. If there is a clinical/exceptional need, we will do our best to arrange an appointment on another day. 

All new patients will be invited for a face to face appointment. 

Our dedicated nursing team will receive you and measure your vital signs (weight, blood pressure etc) and may perform an ECG. 

You will then see Dr Shanmuganathan, Consultant Cardiologist. He will take a medical history and perform a physical examination of your heart, lungs and circulation. He will then perform an echocardiogram (ultrasound scan of the heart) in most cases. 

You may be advised to undergo blood tests on the day, which will be performed by the dedicated nursing team. 

You may be offered a prescription for medications which you can obtain from the pharmacy on the same day.

Depending in your symptoms, Dr Shanmuganathan may make requests for you to undergo a heart scan (either an echocardiogram or a heart MRI scan) or other related investigations (ECG monitor, blood pressure monitor, CT scan of heart arteries or an angiogram). 

You may also be asked to undergo a repeat blood tests at one or two weeks after your visit to monitor your health and  response to any medications that you were started on.

All of these tests will be done fairly quickly (within days in the private practice) and at your convenience and reports will be sent to you and your GP by Dr Shanmuganathan. 

If you are privately insured, most medical insurance companies will cover this cost. For self-payers, the fee for the first consultation is between £250 and £300 and for a follow-up appointment is £180.