A BORDER heart health service wants to let rural patients know they need not be so patient.
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That long waiting times for appointments and travelling to a capital city for tests are not inevitable.
A cardiac assessment centre in West Albury opened in April to provide a rapid access chest pain clinic for both public and private patients.
Consultant and interventional cardiologist Jan du Plooy said the demands of a catchment area that numbered about 300,000 meant people with non-urgent chest pain previously might have waited weeks for tests to determine their cause.
Nurse unit manager Kate Sutton said the cardiac assessment centre, part of Albury Wodonga Private Hospital, aimed to offer faster, more convenient treatment.
“There seems to be this almost an acceptance that if you live in a rural area you have to wait months and months to see doctors when people in metropolitan areas don’t have to,” she said.
“There's really no need, the services are here.”
Patients are referred by their doctor, with the available tests including cardiac stress tests, electrocardiograms, 24-hour Holter monitors and echocardiograms.
If further treatment is required, private patients can then undergo procedures like angiograms, pacemaker implantation and stents at Albury Wodonga Private Hospital.
“That’s what we’re trying to create, this one-stop shop, I suppose, so patients don’t have to traipse all over the place to get everything done,” Mrs Sutton said.
“They can get it all done in one place and within a reasonable time frame.”
Dr du Plooy said the centre had been going better than expected since its April 18 opening, seeing nearly 80 patients.
As well as the chest pain clinic, the centre planned to start a heart failure clinic later this year and an arrhythmia clinic in 2017.
“I think people still have the idea that most things have to go down to Melbourne and it’s not true, I think we can safely offer that service locally,” he said.
“I always say it’s the best kept secret in Albury and people don’t know about us.”