Heart patients kept waiting for six months (From Western Telegraph)

Heart patients kept waiting for six months

The coronary care crisis in Wales is having an inevitable knock-on effect at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest.

Although local patients with potential heart problems have rapid access to a chest pain clinic at Withybush, those who need special investigations, such as angiograms, are referred to Swansea, where a routine wait can be six months.

This has the effect of increasing the wait for new patients at the Withybush Cardiology Clinic as patients who are waiting for an appointment at Swansea need to continue to be reviewed at Withybush, said a spokesperson for the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust. Similarly, patients who need to be transferred as in-patients from Withybush to Swansea sometimes have to wait on the ward for several days, thus reducing the number of beds available for new admissions. National Assembly health minister Jane Hutt says heart disease treatment reforms are a top priority.

It is the biggest killer in Wales, which is why we are tackling it on all fronts, including prevention in the first instance, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, she adds.

Our strategy for tackling heart disease is long term. There has been progress, but there is more work to be done. The Assembly, she says, is committed to increasing the number of cardiologists in Wales and the number of medical students going through the system. There are a number of programmes in Wales working with people at risk of heart disease.

While they have welcomed the news of greater commitment from the Assembly, medical officials say the funding does not yet appear to be reaching the front line in the battle against heart disease.

Outgoing chairman of the Welsh Cardiac Group, Dr Jeffery Green, was quoted last week as saying that the crucial need is for more cardiologists, more nurses and better facilities to tackle the problem, but at the moment they were not coming through quickly enough.

The shortage of consultants meant patients could wait up to a year for a first appointment and up to two years from GP referral to an operation, he said.