£200,000 of new equipment will help cardiology patients at Withybush Hospital

Thanks to a generous bequest, Hywel Dda Health Charities has been able to purchase new equipment costing over £200,000 for cardiology patients at Withybush Hospital.

The two echocardiography machines for the hospital’s Cardio-Respiratory Department will help to reduce waiting lists for scans and also enable echocardiograms for inpatients to be done sooner, which will help significantly with hospital discharges.
This extra equipment is in addition to £110,000 worth of machines bought from the same bequest for the Child Health Department so that under-16 patients in Pembrokeshire can continue to receive vital cardiology screening as close to home as possible.

The bequest was kindly made by the late Mrs GWJ Thomas, for the benefit of coronary care at Withybush Hospital.
Cardiac Physiologist Teleri Cudd said: “New, up-to-date echo machines will enable employees to work faster and increase productivity within the workplace.
“In order to maintain service provision, investment in new, reliable and modern equipment is so important.
“Echocardiography is central to the assessment and management of all cardiac diseases and, with more machines, patients will be waiting less time for diagnosis.”
Due to COVID-19, there is a backlog of outpatients waiting for echocardiograms but with extra machines, sonographers can carry out more scans at the same time to help reduce waiting lists.
The new machines will also enable advanced clinics to continue to be carried out alongside the routine and urgent outpatient and inpatient clinics.
Nicola Llewelyn, Head of Hywel Dda Health Charities, the official charity of Hywel Dda University Health Board, said: “The support of our local communities enables us to provide services over and above what the NHS can provide in the three counties of Hywel Dda and we are extremely grateful for every donation we receive.”

For more details about the charity and how you can help support local NHS patients, service-users and staff in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, go to www.hywelddahealthcharities.org.uk