HEART bosses have admitted that patients are still having to wait too long for vital diagnostic tests.

Services for heart patients in the North-East have been transformed in recent years with the average wait for routine bypass surgery falling from 18 months to about four months.

But experts are concerned that a shortage of coronary angiography facilities means that patients are having to wait six months for vital checks before they can join the queue for surgery.

To try to remedy the situation a programme of building coronary angiography units is under way.

An angiography unit at the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham City, is due to open in August.

It will be joined in the autumn by a £1.3m unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital and in December, by a unit at the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

Yesterday, officials from the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust took part in a ceremony to mark the start of building work at the Memorial.

The unit, which will have an angiography suite linked to eight recovery beds, will eventually process 750 patients a year.

Dr Jim Hall, head of heart services at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said the extra patients diagnosed at the three new angiography centres would require a similar expansion at the Teesside heart unit.

One problem that is looming is the growing preference to treat heart patients with angioplasty - inflating a tiny balloon inside the artery to remove a blockage - instead of open-heart surgery.

At present, the Middlesbrough hospital has three catheter labs, where angioplasties are performed.

Dr Hall calculates that at least another two labs will be needed to meet the increased demand over the next two years.

About 1200 bypass operations are carried out each year at James Cook and that is expected to increase to 1,500 over the next 18 months.

Gordon Wilcock, 64, from Darlington, a member of Darlington Coronary Support Group, said: "Even a week is a long time to wait for an angiogram if you have got chest pains.

"Hopefully this new unit should make a difference."

Len Fenwick, chief executive of the Freeman heart hospital, in Newcastle, said that by the end of this month, patients could expect to wait six months for an angiogram, angioplasty or open-heart surgery.

* Five years ago The Northern Echo launched A Chance To Live, a campaign to improve treatment facilities for heart patients.

Read more about the Chance to Live campaign here.