Heart patients will no longer have to make round trips of up to 300 miles from the north west to Dublin for vital diagnostic tests following a decision by the North Western Health Board to engage a mobile laboratory to carry out angiograms at Sligo General Hospital.
The health board, at its meeting this week, approved the introduction of the service, which will come into operation at the beginning of November.
The mobile cardiac catheterisation laboratory will travel from the UK twice a month to the north west, where doctors treating patients who present with chest pain will use it to determine if their arteries are becoming blocked.
Dr Donal Murray, a consultant physician/cardiologist at Sligo General Hospital, said this was the first time a health board had contracted a mobile unit to perform angiograms.
He said angiograms were performed at hospitals in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway but the north west was "a particular blackspot" as its patients were quite distant from these centres.
All patients in the north west - an estimated 500 a year - who require angiograms are referred to St James's Hospital, Dublin, and the Mater Hospital, Dublin, for the test.
Dr Murray said out-patients who required angiograms had to spend at least two nights in Dublin at present but they would now be able to undergo the procedure as day patients at Sligo General Hospital. In-patients also had to be transferred to Dublin for the test, and have had to travel by ambulance.
"This is a very important service because if you are going to treat a patient, you have to have a correct diagnosis and this unit essentially helps to make a correct diagnosis. Patients were transported to Dublin for diagnosis up to now at considerable expense and inconvenience," Dr Murray said. "It is also hopefully a step towards getting our own fixed site catheterisation laboratory at Sligo General Hospital."
Mr Pat Gaughan, the health board's assistant chief executive officer of acute hospitals and mental health, said cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death in the north-west, accounting for up to 960 deaths each year.
"Dublin remains the principal tertiary referral centre for patients from Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal. All day case patients return the same day, thus requiring a 260 miles round trip for Sligo patients and a 296 miles round trip for Donegal patients," Mr Gaughan said.
He confirmed the health board had made an agreement with Cardiovision, a UK-based company, to visit the region twice a month for two consecutive days, dealing with up to 12 patients a day.
"The introduction of this service will ensure that travel time will be reduced and quality of life of patients will be enhanced, as patients will no longer have to make round trips to Dublin on the same day," Mr Gaughan said.
It will also mean an immediate reduction in the number of bed days required at Sligo and Letterkenny General Hospitals for patients waiting to go to Dublin for the procedure, he added.