PATIENTS in Gwent who need major surgery to fix life-threatening or life-changing problems caused by blocked or damaged blood vessels, will likely have their treatment in Cardiff in future, under a proposed shake-up of vascular services.

Plans being consulted upon at the moment will, if approved, mean that people across south east Wales who need urgent or planned surgery for potentially fatal abdominal aortic aneurysms, carotid and other artery disease, and amputation due to blood vessel problems, will be treated at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

Other major vascular operations would also need to be carried out in Cardiff too, though procedures including angioplasty - to widen narrow or blocked arteries - angiograms which can detect and diagnose such blockages, and a range of other elective treatments, would continue to be done, in the case of Gwent, at the Grange University and Royal Gwent Hospitals.

The main aim of vascular services is to rebuild, unblock or bypass arteries to restore blood flow to organs, key aims being to cut the risk of sudden death, help prevent stroke, reduce the risk of amputation, and improve function.

Vascular specialists also support other specialties, including major trauma, cardiology, diabetic medicine, stroke medicine, kidney dialysis and chemotherapy.

The revamp is being driven by a need to confront several challenges facing vascular services, which are making them ever more difficult to run from all the hospitals that currently provide them in the south east Wales region.

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Standards state that in terms of major vascular surgery, there is a need for a larger population to be served than is the case at present across the region's hospitals.

Many of these hospitals do not perform the required annual numbers of, for instance abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs or unblocking of carotid arteries, to meet the required quality standards.

There is also a growing need for vascular services, particularly given the rise in issues such as diabetes and obesity, but a major difficulty in recruiting and retaining specialist staff.

It is considered that services - and expertise - are spread too thinly across south east Wales, and that by focusing major treatments in one centre, this issue can be addressed, and outcomes for patients will also be improved.

A 'hub and spoke' model for the service is proposed, using the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff as the 'hub' for major vascular treatments.

Hospitals such as the Grange and the Royal Gwent for Gwent patients - and the Royal Glamorgan and Llandough for those from other parts of south east Wales - would no longer provide major vascular surgery, but would be the 'spokes' in the system, providing other vascular treatments, diagnostics and outpatients.

Rehabilitation for vascular patients would continue to be provided in the community, and at hospitals local to patients.

Such a system has already been established in south west Wales and in north Wales.

The current public engagement process to gather views on the proposals, runs until Friday April 16.

For more details about the proposals, and to access information on how to comment on them - including through an online survey - visit https://abuhb.nhs.wales/sewalesvascular/