HUNDREDS of patients from Huddersfield have now undergone a specialist heart procedure.

More than 400 men and women living in the town and Calderdale have successfully received the treatment – and been able to go home the following day.

The procedure is aimed at people who have suffered cardiac chest pain – and is now done in Calderdale rather than in Leeds.

It is called percutaneous coronary intervention or angioplasty and stenting.

It was introduced last summer at Calderdale Royal Hospital for the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

This replaced the previous need for local residents to go to Leeds for care.

Patients are admitted for angiogram, an X-ray of the arteries supplying the heart muscle with blood.

This may then be followed by an insertion of a stent (angioplasty) if a blockage has been identified.

The stent is a small tube, made of a metal mesh which is inserted to widen the coronary artery that has become narrowed.

The aim is to improve the blood and oxygen supply to the heart.

Usually a patient can return home the next day without a long stay in hospital.

Airline pilot Glyn Armstrong, of Upperthong, is a recent patient.

His chest pains started at home and he went into the casualty department at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

He was transferred to Calderdale Royal Hospital where an angiogram identified a 95% blockage in one of his coronary arteries.

The specialist team, led by consultant cardiologist Dr Simon Grant, inserted a stent.

Glyn went home the following day and is now on a programme of cardiac rehabilitation, including light treadmill exercise.

Glyn, 57, said: “The care from start to finish was amazing.

“I went to Huddersfield at 5.50pm on a Monday, had been transferred and had the procedure at Calderdale by Tuesday afternoon and went home on the Wednesday.”

Glyn, a father-of-two, will have to have a check-up and further tests but he hopes to return to work in six months.

Dr Grant, who is lead interventionist for the trust, said: “We had been performing these procedures on the trust’s patients on a visiting basis at Leeds General Infirmary for some time.

“We felt that doing so more locally would have some advantages.

“I don’t think we could have predicted how successful this would be and what a positive effect this has had on patient and staff satisfaction.

“It has shortened the length of time in hospital for our patients.”