Professional profile

Dr Vinay Kumar Bhatia is a consultant cardiologist - a specially trained doctor dealing with health problems relating to your heart and circulation.

His expertise is in the field of cardiac imaging and specifically trans-thoracic, trans-oesophageal echocardiographic techniques and stress echocardiography (both with exercise and with pharmacological stress agents). 

He performs, supervises and reviews about 1,000 trans-thoracic echocardiograms per year, and over 500 stress echocardiograms per year. He is the consultant in charge and involved in the care of over 1,000 patients per year.

Wells Health has an efficient, responsive and flexible booking team and patient feedback is taken very seriously to keep the service up to date and on the cutting edge of clinical excellence. 

The tests Dr Bhatia performs and provide an expert opinion on include:

  • treadmill stress testing
  • trans-thoracic echocardiography
  • contrast enhanced echocardiography
  • diagnostic coronary angiography
  • trans-oesophageal echocardiography
  • electrocardiographic and holter monitoring analysis.

Dr Bhatia is proud to mainly practice in the NHS, but aware of the constraints on consultation times and waiting times for many tests and procedures. Some patients need more time for a doctor to listen to the various issues related to their health, and more in-depth discussion and explanation about why and how we carry out cardiac investigations, to provide either an explanation (diagnosis) for their symptoms or just reassurance and peace of mind.

Dr Bhatia grew up locally in Kent and qualified at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London in 1994. He formally trained in general medicine and cardiology (15 years in total) in London at the Hammersmith Hospital (Imperial College), the Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield Hospital. This training included three years in basic science research at Imperial College, London for which he was awarded a PhD in 2005. He was appointed Consultant Cardiologist at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in 2009.

He is the clinical lead for echocardiography and cardiac services, and clinical governance lead for specialist medicine at Tunbridge Wells Hospital and is accredited by the British Society of Echocardiography, where he also serves as a training supervisor and examiner. 

 

Clinical interests

  • Arrhythmia (Electrophysiology)
  • Atrial fibrillation
  • Cardiology
  • Congenital heart disease
  • Coronary artery disease
  • Echocardiography
  • Hypertension
  • Interventional cardiology
  • Stroke prevention

Dr Bhatia also has an expert interest in coronary artery disease (ischaemic heart disease), cardiac arrhythmia, heart failure, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathy, hypertension and heart screening. 

He sees most general cardiology issues including heart murmurs, palpitations, cryptogenic, black-outs, collapsing or fainting episodes, stroke and TIA, non-invasive and invasive investigation of chest discomfort and breathlessness, and echocardiogram screening (including TOE) of inheritable heart diseases.

Treatment information

Some of the principal treatments carried out by Dr Vinay Kumar Bhatia include:

  • Cardiology
  • Blood clot or thrombosis test
  • Blood pressure test
  • Blood tests for heart disease risk (cardiac testing)
  • Cardiac CT scan (heart CT)
  • Cardiac MRI
  • Contrast echo
  • ECG monitoring or event recorder - 24/48 hour
  • Electrocardiogram (ECG).

 

Other treatments

  • Echocardiography
  • CT coronary angiography
  • Heart rhythm (Holter) monitoring
  • Trans-oesophageal echocardiography.

Qualifications and professional memberships

Qualifications

  • BSc (Hons) Neurosciences - Neurophysiology, University of London, 1991
  • MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital, University of London, 1994
  • PhD Vascular Biology and Immunology, Imperial College (London), 2006
  • FRCP Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 2011

 

Professional memberships

  • British Society of Cardiovascular Medicine
    British Society of Echocardiography (BSE)
    Royal College of Physicians of London (Fellow)

 

Professional leadership

  • Clinical Lead for Echocardiography, Tunbridge Wells Hospital
  • Clinical Governance Lead for Specialist Medicine, Tunbridge Wells Hospital
  • Clinical Lead for Cardiac Services, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

 

Research and publications

 

Current NHS posts

  • Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (2009 — present)
  • Clinical Governance Lead for Specialist Medicine, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (2009 — present)
  • Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Kings College Hospital, London (1994 — present).