Scotland would effectively have a single waiting list for heart surgery to improve equity of access under proposals published last week.
The report of the Coronary Heart Disease/Stroke Task Force also calls for drug treatment for secondary prevention of heart attack to be a 'national priority', says a CHD database should be 'mandatory' in primary care, and warns targets will not be met unless more cardiologists are appointed. The group also recommends a single referral letter to standardise priority cases.
It decided against building a fifth centre but said existing ones, two in Glasgow - one each in Edinburgh and Aberdeen - should be strengthened. Group head Professor Ross Lorimer said: 'We want agreed priorities and agreed referral letters so everyone is working from the same template. . . It may be that a patient wants to be treated by a particular surgeon at a particular centre and that is fine. But if the facilities are available elsewhere, with a shorter waiting time, then the patient should be given the opportunity to be treated sooner.'
The report also calls for the number of procedures to be increased and wants an extra 29 cardiologists, on top of the existing 70. The report is out for consultation until 31 December.
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