Dwyfor Meirionnydd’s MS has poured praise on a mobile cardiovascular service for north west Wales.

The outreach service to help cardiovascular patients across Dwyfor Meirionnydd and north west Wales has been hailed by the MS, who says it is an ingenious way of getting to hard to reach patients and cutting down waiting lists.

Mabon ap Gwynfor visited Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s Community Cardiology Vehicle at Ysbyty Eryri in Caernarfon to see the work being done by the mobile service team.

The project was set up by Advanced Cardiac Physiologists Liana Shirley and Hannah Jones during Covid as a way of reaching patients who required cardiovascular diagnostic services across north west Wales.

The service has gone from strength to strength, with the vehicle reaching an additional 300 patients a year.

Liana said: “During the Covid crisis we had nowhere to hold clinics, as the beds had been reassigned for Covid patients.

“Myself and my colleague Hannah had to start doing home visits, where we would have to drag a scanner in full PPE into people’s homes. It was hard, but necessary.

“My husband suggested our jobs would be easier if we had a van that could hold all the necessary equipment that we needed to assess the patient."

Mr ap Gwynfor MS said: “This was an inspiring visit to see an innovative project that is reaching patients who might not otherwise get what could prove to be a life-saving diagnosis.

“For far too long our health service has followed an urban model in Wales failing to adapt to the rural nature of the country. This failure has led to many patients failing to turn up to appointments and check-ups and costing lives and money.

“This simple innovation of taking the service out to the communities is transformative and deserves high praise. I was immensely impressed by what I saw, and the dedication of the staff was evident.

“The £64,500 cardiology vehicle was funded by the North Wales NHS Charity, Awyr Las, after the potential for this new way of working was realised.

“The health board, the charity, and more importantly the staff behind the scheme must be congratulated for this development.

“I understand that the health board and charity have taken the best practice learnt from this vehicle and have applied it to other services, and that we will soon have another Awyr Las funded vehicle, this time for the audiology service.

“I sincerely hope that we will see this model being rolled out across other parts of the country.”

The one-stop heart failure assessment clinics were originally set up by Dr Graham Thomas with the ethos that no patient in north Wales should need to travel more than 20-30 minutes to receive a heart failure diagnosis.

One-stop heart failure diagnostic services optimise the diagnostic process, improve patient outcomes, and enhance overall patient experience.

By providing faster diagnosis and treatment, these streamlined processes facilitate quicker diagnosis, allowing for timely initiation of appropriate treatments. This can be crucial for improving patient outcomes.