I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit the State-of-the-Art cardiac catheterisation lab at Altnagelvin last Wednesday. Cardiac catheterisation labs can be of enormous benefit to patients having a particular form of heart attack, known as ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or SteMI, allowing them to bypass the Emergency Department and go straight to the lab for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI).
The primary PCI service at Altnagelvin has already benefited patients in Northern Ireland. I am delighted that this service will be available to the wider population of the North West as soon as the resources which have been agreed are in place. As well as benefitting patients, this development brings with it an opportunity to develop the research, teaching and training potential which capitalises on the current expertise that exists within the region. Cross-border cooperation on health makes sense, allowing us to pool our resources to provide better health care for all our citizens.
The decision of appropriate options for a fixed elective cardiac catheterisation laboratory will be deferred until the service in Altnagelvin is fully operational and its impact on service requirements in the North West is assessed. In the interim, the current mobile cath lab services will continue to operate.
