A new £3.4m heart centre at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary is nearly complete.
The team will start treating patients in new labs next week.
Dr Justin Barclay, clinical director for cardiology said: “Having the two labs is a complete game changer for us, before now we only had one.
“We used to have to postpone planned procedures if we had an emergency case come in. These two labs are, not just state-of-the-art with the best equipment we could ask for, they mean that we will be able to carry our planned procedures simultaneously with emergency procedures.”
The heart centre will be used used for emergency surgery for people who have suffered a severe and life threatening cardiac arrest and also for specialist cardiac investigative procedures to determine, treat and manage lower risk heart conditions and less severe heart attacks.
Dr Barclay added: “These laboratories will carry out all emergency and planned cardiac surgery as well as the specialist cardiac diagnostic services used to monitor and diagnose conditions.
“We will start treating people in the new labs from next week and we hope to be fully operational using both labs simultaneously by spring.
“The new labs will improve patient experience and eventually increase the numbers of patients who can be treated and in a more timely way. It will also reduce the patients that need to be transferred to the north east because we are now able to carry out even more complex procedures here.
“We will now be able to carry out more complex procedures here now instead of referring some patients to the north east. We are also developing a larger radial lounge in the area where the previous lab was, which will be a dedicated and far improved space for people to recover after their investigations.”
