Heart patients will have a health care boost in Bradford with a new rapid- access chest pain clinic and investigation laboratory which aims to cut deaths.

A £1 million cardiac catheter laboratory is set to open at Bradford Royal Infirmary in the spring of 2001.

Staff will perform angiograms on people with heart disease, allowing about 1,000 to be undertaken in the district each year, more than double the number performed at present.

An angiogram is a sophisticated investigation in which a tiny tube is threaded through into the patient's coronary artery under X-ray control. Dye is injected which then shows the extent and location of narrowing of the arteries.

Malcolm Poad, director of planning at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, said doctors would then be able to either treat the condition with angioplasty, where a balloon is inflated in the artery to clear the blockage, or send patients for surgery.

"If we can get people diagnosed and treated quickly, we can stop people dying prematurely from heart disease," he said.

Cash for the £1 million development, which will also cost £319,000 a year to run, is being provided by Bradford Health Authority plus the district's Primary Care Trusts, the organisations which commission health care for the district's residents.

And a rapid access, one-stop chest pain clinic at the hospital is also being set up with Government cash. It will cost £316,000 in building work and equipment, plus £154,000 each year in running costs.

The clinic, which will open in April, will mean patients diagnosed with angina by their GPs can be seen and have investigations in one appointment.

And there will be a two-week target so patients who have been told they probably have angina can be seen and investigated much more quickly than at present.

"Cutting coronary heart disease is a big priority locally and nationally," said Mr Poad.

More nursing, X-ray, technical and clerical staff are set to be employed to run the two developments.