HEART patients are to benefit from a new dedicated ambulance service which will shorten the time they wait to be transferred to and from a specialist cardiac centre.

Patients from hospitals in Preston and Chorley are regularly transferred for specialist treatment to Blackpool's Victoria Hospital where the centre is based.

Under a pilot scheme run by Lancashire Ambulance Service and the Victoria, ambulance personnel will work with staff on the cardiac wards, managing all transfers in and out of the unit.

In the past, patients had to wait for an emergency ambulance to become available.

The new vehicle will be exclusively available for these transfers as a result of funding from the Lancashire and Cumbria Coronary Heart Disease Collaborative Innovation Fund.

Launched on Sunday, August 29, it will run seven days a week for a trial period of nine months.

Irene Good, cardiac pathway co-ordinator at Victoria Hospital, said: "Once we know a patient is ready for transfer either to Blackpool or back to their local hospital and we know a bed is available we can arrange the ambulance and it will be here quickly.

"In the past patients have sometimes faced lengthy waits while an emergency ambulance became available."