HCI Hospital is to Be the Centre for All Heart Surgery Health Board Chiefs Approve Scheme to Send Patients Out of the City for Operations
Posted on: Wednesday, 21 September 2005, 15:00 CDT
GLASGOW'S health board has approved plans to send all heart and lung surgery out of the city to a new unit at the former HCI hospital in Clydebank.
The Golden Jubilee Hospital, as it is now known, has been earmarked as a centre for cardiothoracic surgery, serving patients in the west of Scotland.
Plans are now being drawn up to move units including the Scottish heart transplant service, currently based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, following a consultation in February.
But NHS Greater Glasgow has admitted doctors are split over a proposal that would transfer some treatments for heart attacks away from casualty units in the city.
A controversial proposal is being considered to transfer "cardiac intervention" work including angioplasty, where a balloon is inserted into a blocked artery to widen it.
Health board chief executive Tom Divers told members the proposal came from heart consultants who felt it made sense to carry out the procedures in the same specialist unit responsible for heart surgery.
He said: "It was suggested there could be significant advantage in exploring opportunities to provide all coronary intervention on the Golden Jubilee site."
But some accident and emergency doctors want to keep some of the heart treatment services in Glasgow.
This will now be at the centre of a special review over the coming months.
Glasgow's health board originally planned to open a specialist heart and lung surgery unit at Gartnavel General Hospital in 2012 at the earliest.
But yesterday's decision could see patients being treated in Clydebank by May 2007, if Health Minister Andy Kerr approves the move.
NHS Lanarkshire has already voted to move its lung surgery from Hairmyres in East Kilbride to the new centre.
Patients will also travel from Ayrshire, Inverclyde and the Borders.
Dr Ken Ferguson, medical director of the Golden Jubilee Hospital, said: "We are now another step closer to offering patients in the West of Scotland faster treatment and offering this treatment at a dedicated hospital using the latest equipment available."
The health board admitted:
"In their responses, consultant cardiologists expressed different views about the proposed interventional cardiology model.
"A consensus view has now emerged amongst this group of doctors that all interventional cardiology should transfer to the Golden Jubilee Hospital."
john.mccann@eveningtimes. co. uk
Source: Evening Times; Glasgow (UK)
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