A £1million investment at Kendal's Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) will bring 'state-of-the art' facilities to patients with heart problems.

The Morecambe Bay Cardiac Centre at the Burton Road site offers services such as angiography, which involves taking an x-ray to diagnose conditions such as angina and the fitting of permanent pacemaker implants. Every year, the centre welcomes in excess of 1,000 patients.

The investment will see the current specialised equipment replaced and the full refurbishment of the Cardiac Catheter Lab Theatre Suite where procedures are carried out.

"The innovative specification of this specialised cardio-vascular imaging suite will provide extremely detailed x-ray images of the heart within a fabulous ‘state of the art’ theatre environment which will be a great space for our team to work in and more importantly, for our patients to undergo cardiac procedures in," said Alison Capps-Nevett, lead radiographer at the centre, which is run by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

“We take great pride in the quality of specialist care provided by our dedicated team, and this investment will enhance the experience our patients receive, and provide assurance that the Cardiac Catheter Lab is, quite simply, of the highest specification and standard currently available.”

Whilst work is being undertaken, appointments and procedures will move to a mobile Cardiac Catheter Lab, which will be located near the Dunmail entrance.

It will be operational from March 20 to mid-July. The Dunmail entrance will remain accessible to patients who are on foot or being dropped off by car.

Alison continued: “We are extremely pleased to have secured the provision of a mobile Cardiac Catheter Lab here at WGH. This first class facility will ensure that the Cath Lab service can continue to be delivered to our patients, to our usual high standards of care and expertise, at the same hospital site, and with minimal disruption to our patients and staff for the period of the refurbishment.”

Morecambe Bay Cardiac Centre was commissioned in early 2003 as part of a project to increase provision nationally. It opened at WGH in April 2004, bringing a specialist service to the Kendal site.

Prior to this patients travelled to Blackpool Victoria Hospital for procedures.

If patients have any queries about appointments during the refurbishment work, they are asked to phone 01539716547.