Why You Might Need a Holter Monitor?
Before we dive in, let’s rewind a little and talk about why you would need a 3-day Holter monitor.
If your heart is doing strange backflips in your chest in the most unexpected times, the best way to see what is exactly going on with your heart rhythm is to run an ECG. But, the challenge is that the episodes of these backflips are unpredictable, and a regular ECG check lasts 10 seconds…
So, to catch this mischief, you need to run an ECG for longer so that …
- a) you catch the arrhythmia in the act and
- b) there is more data for the analysis (the more data, the better)
This is where the Holter monitor comes in.
Anyone who has symptoms that don’t happen every day, who’ve had one abnormal ECG and want clarity, anyone with a family history of arrhythmias, or anyone who feels anxious about unexplained palpitations can be fitted with a Holter monitor.
How Do You Get a Holter Monitor?
You can receive a Holter monitor from the NHS for free. But, the NHS pathway is designed for safety and triage in primary care. It prioritises emergencies, which is exactly what it should do. This means, however, that non-urgent cases wait longer.
An alternative approach is to ‘self-refer’ and pay for a Holter monitor from an external service provider, like Your Heart Check.
With all of that being said, let’s get back to our question, since it’s an important one.
Why Pay for a Holter Monitor?
First, can we just say that we think it’s a smart move to consider a cost when making a decision? We also think that every decision has at least two costs: a cost of saying yes and a cost of saying no.
What do we mean by that?
Every decision has either an immediate cost, which in this case is parting with some cash to gain clarity and answers to what exactly your heart is up to.
The Cost of Saying No
There is also a cost of saying no. You don’t spend any money, but the cost of this is time. The time it takes to get a referral to see a consultant, the backlog the NHS is battling with, the time of rescheduled appointments because of the holidays, etc. 40% of patients wait up to 18 weeks for a cardiology appointment… The NHS does incredible work, it’s simply incredibly stretched.
The decision you actually have to make is whether you want to shrink the window of uncertainty, and reduce the ‘maybe it’s nothing or maybe it’s serious’ loop you play in your head every time you feel your heart flutter, the disturbed sleep with Google Doctor at 3 a.m., and the worry that the symptoms will worsen unexpectedly.
That loop is relentless. It’s like living next to an alarm that goes off at random, day and night. You can’t concentrate as your thoughts are constantly pulled back to the ‘what if’ scenarios. The truth is, you’re not paying for a test, but to switch that alarm off and get your calm back.
What You Are Paying for with Holter Monitoring
What you’re buying is control over your heart timeline and the possibility to catch the issue whilst the symptoms are still mild and the intervention is likely to be straightforward. What you get is options to make informed decisions earlier and reduce risk later. You see, when you intervene whilst your symptoms are still mild, you are likely to have more treatment options to take. The longer you wait and the more significant the symptoms become, the more those options narrow down.
Yes, you part with some cash, but you gain hospital-grade evaluation of your heart’s rhythm without the hospital-grade hassle. You gain continuous, quick-access monitoring with specialist interpretation, minus the bureaucracy.
So, why should you pay for a 3-day Holter when you can get it from the NHS for free?
Because you will be buying immediate clarity and information that will allow you and your doctor to get you the best care possible.
If clarity is what you need, click the ‘Order’ button on the top of the page, and let’s get started.
