Long wait for heart patients

Barry Seckerson takes up to five drugs a day

The BBC has learned heart patients in Stoke-on-Trent are having to wait up to two years for a test to determine whether they need vital surgery.

Shortages in the NHS are being blamed for the wait by patients needing an angiogram at the University Hospital North Staffordshire.

The hospital says it is doing its best to address the problem.

Patient Barry Seckerson suffers from clogged arteries and takes up to five drugs a day to control his angina.

'Ludicrous situation'

An angiogram, which involves passing a tiny tube into an artery usually in the groin and moving it up to the heart, shows how serious the blockage of blood supply is.

By 2005, the longest anyone should wait is three months.

But Mr Seckerson says if he had not written to his MP, he would have had to wait up to two years for an angiogram in Stoke-on-Trent.

He told the BBC's Midlands Today programme: "I would like to see Alan Milburn come up to Stoke-on-Trent to the city's hospital with the three county MPs and meet the doctors with the chief executive and get this ludicrous situation that they have, sorted out."

The University Hospital North Staffordshire has admitted semi-urgent cases wait between 18 and 20 months, while routine cases must expect to wait up to two years.

Although they have two extra cardiologists to perform the procedure, the trust does not yet have enough technicians or money to carry out the extra operations.