New heart doctors set to cut Royal Gwent waits (From South Wales Argus)

New heart doctors set to cut Royal Gwent waits

7:20pm Thursday 10th December 2009 in Gwent news By Andy Rutherford - Health correspondent

HEALTH bosses are planning to appoint two new cardiologists in Gwent next year, to help minimise waiting times for heart treatment.

The new expertise would also enable the setting up at the Royal Gwent Hospital of a service for treating patients requiring angioplasty - an operation to widen narrowed arteries - though funding for this has yet to be confirmed.

Patients' watchdogs have been concerned that Gwent patients referred to the University Hospital for Wales (UHW) in Cardiff for heart treatment, are waiting longer than the soon-to-be-maximum 26 weeks from referral to treatment.

The move to a 26-week RTT (Referral To Treatment Time) has presented major challenges to cardiology and cardiac services in Gwent and Cardiff.

In Gwent, extra resources have been put into trying to get patients who require treatment, which currently only takes place in Cardiff, through the system earlier.

Indications are that patients needing consultation and treatment in Cardiff should be referred there from Gwent at around 17 weeks into the overall process, if they are to be dealt with inside 26 weeks.

But even with new consultation and diagnostic clinics, Aneurin Bevan Health Board chief executive Dr Andrew Goodall has told Gwent Community Health Council that the handover of all patients to Cardiff at 17 weeks has not been possible.

Complex cases and not enough staff are key reasons.

The health board is working closely with UHW on the issue, but Dr Goodall warns, in a letter to the CHC, that the problem is not restricted to Gwent, and that "it is anticipated there will be a deficit of surgical capacity in Cardiff to meet demand from across south east Wales."

Introducing angioplasty at the Royal Gwent would help ease pressure on UHW.

Currently the former's cardiology unit carries out a range of heart tests, but anyone subsequently requiring an operation, including angioplasty, must go to UHW or further afield.