Assurances about improvements in cardiac care have been given to Swansea Bay health board chiefs following a critical review.
Board members were told processes had been tightened up for elderly cardiac patients who were eligible for a procedure called a trans-catheter aortic valve implantation (Tavi), which is much less invasive than open heart surgery.
Experts from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) had made a series of recommendations after being called in by the health board to assess the clinical management of elderly patients at Morriston Hospital between 2015 and 2018.
The RCP found that the care of 23 of 32 of these patients who died after being assessed for a Tavi procedure was unsatisfactory.
All patients with a moderate to severe narrowing of the aortic valve who are deemed high risk for surgery are now seen by a cardiologist and a cardiac surgeon at the same time to assess whether they’re better off having a Tavi…
