A PENSIONER was forced to use her savings to pay for a £19,500 heart operation after being told she faced a wait of up to six months for treatment.

Former postmistress June Crum, aged 78, from The Highway, Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran, paid for the operation in April at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff, after initial treatment at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport.

She said she felt forced to pay after her health deteriorated – she had already been hospitalised three times – and she was frightened about what might happen.

“I took my cash ISAs out – it was important. When they told me I would have to wait for another five to six months, I was frightened. It was well worth doing and I had good treatment in the Heath (UHW).”

The mother-of-four said she was staggered by the waiting time she was given after having already endured 18 months of problems.

“I was really quite shocked. I thought it wouldn’t be long having been in hospital three times,” she said.

“My main concern was the wait. The treatment I had was very good.”

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board received a share of Welsh Government funding earlier this year to tackle long waits for echocardiogram tests, and has itself committed extra investment into cardiology.

“The health board continues to focus on improving waiting times across our cardiac services, and we apologise to patients currently delayed in receiving their treatment,” said a spokesman.

“Additional investment of £717,000 per annum was approved by the board at the end of July to improve current referral to treatment times for patients, as the board acknowledged that waiting times had been too long.

“This is in addition to the Welsh Government monies received of £145,000 to address long waits that were being experienced by patients for echocardiography.

“At the end of September, the number of patients with a referral-to-treatment time beyond the 36-week target was 23 and our compliance against the referral-to-treatment time 26-week target was 87 per cent.

“With the additional investment, we expect to improve overall referral-to-treatment time performance and reduce waiting times for new outpatients to 10 weeks – and echocardiography to eight weeks – by the end of March 2015.

“The health board is also currently recruiting for an additional locum consultant in cardiology and has recently successfully recruited an additional echocardiographer.”