When heart flutters starts to worry you
It starts as a flutter in your chest. Harmless, maybe. But when it happens again, and again, you can’t help but think of your family history. So you do the right thing: you call the GP.
You waited in a call queue longer than it takes to find your way around the IKEA store, and now you are sitting in a waiting room with questions both spinning in your head and smudged on the piece of paper you grabbed on your way here.
Whilst you are playing the conversation with your doctor in your head, you don’t yet realise that the biggest challenge you are about to face has nothing to do with medicine.
The 10-minute GP appointment
Ten minutes.
That’s all you get. About the length of a Bluey episode, except instead of cartoon dogs, it’s your GP trying to untangle your health worries.
It’s not the doctor’s fault. In fact, they’re juggling a lot in those minutes: asking about your history, listening to your symptoms, trying to make sense of your story. By the time they’ve heard about the heart flutters that keep you up at night, the clock is already glaring.
They might squeeze in a quick blood pressure reading, check your pulse, maybe scribble a referral. But deep down, you know it’s not enough to give you peace of mind.
The real villain isn’t your doctor, it’s the ticking clock.
Chances are, you will have to come back or wait for a referral letter to arrive – and we all know how long that takes…
The long wait for referral
So you wait for the referral letter. Weeks, maybe months. The British Heart Foundation says 18 weeks is typical. And today, finally, it’s here. You’re sitting in the waiting room, rehearsing what to say.
The nurse calls your name. Blood pressure: two minutes. ECG: ten seconds flat. Honestly, it takes longer to stick the electrodes on than to run the test.
And, of course, your heart behaves perfectly. No flutters. No palpitations. Not even a hiccup of nerves.
You walk into the consultant’s office. He scans your notes, glances at the printout, then looks at you like you just asked if pineapple belongs on a pizza.
“Your heart seems fine.”
But you don’t feel fine. You feel… defeated. Because the symptoms are real. They just didn’t show up when the stopwatch was running.
If only there was a way to catch your heart in the act…
Catching your heart in the act
Thankfully, there is. Sometimes the consultant will order further tests, or they might send you home with a Holter monitor; a small device that records your heart’s rhythm continuously over several days. The idea is simple: the longer you’re monitored, the more chance there is of capturing those mischievous flutters when they actually happen. The Holter doesn’t just watch you at the hospital, it’s with you at home too. Like a loyal pet that never leaves your side, except this one records ECGs instead of begging for snacks.
Once your monitoring is done, you return the device. The data is downloaded, analysed, turned into a report, and sent back to your cardiologist. Then you wait for the next appointment letter to arrive.
How long will that take? That depends. Processing, analysis, scheduling, and available clinic slots all add up. For some people, that can mean another 18 weeks before they sit down with the consultant again.
The hardest part – waiting again
And so you wait.
The monitor has done its job, the data is out of your hands, and now the calendar takes over. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months. All the while, the flutters that sent you to the GP in the first place still pop up – uninvited, unexplained.
The hardest part isn’t the test itself. It’s the silence that follows. Because when your heart misbehaves, you want answers. What you get, too often, is time. But there is another way…
A better way to get answers sooner
Now picture this: you walk into your GP appointment, but instead of walking in with nothing but worries, you walk in with proof. Clear answers. A map forward.
You’ve already worn a Holter monitor for three days. It’s caught the flutters that keep you awake at night. The report spells out what they mean and lays out the recommended next steps.
It does two things at once:
- Gives you peace of mind because it’s written in plain English.
- Gives your doctor everything they need in medical detail to make an informed decision.
Your GP still refers you to cardiology, but now the referral is sharper, backed by real data from your own heart. That means fewer dead ends. Less waiting for “maybe” answers. More chance of getting to the right treatment sooner.
Will that move things along faster than waiting 18 weeks… twice?
We believe it will.
Take back time in your NHS journey
When it comes to your heart, time shouldn’t be wasted on guesswork. It should be spent on getting you better. If you’re tired of waiting for your heart to tell its story on the NHS’s timetable, we can help you get answers sooner. Find out how on our service page.
