EAST Lancashire has one of the highest rates of heart disease in the country. Yet, today it is revealed that alarmingly low levels of surgery are being carried out on victims.

Some people, major research shows, are waiting more than a year for investigation and treatment.

The immediate conclusion, surely, is that fast action is needed to reduce this dangerous situation.

For why should people be disadvantaged because of where they live?

But while this study suggests that part of the problem is the ever-present bane of pressure on NHS resources there is a disturbing hint that some patients lose out for other reasons.

That is because the findings reveal that it is often older people and those from the ethnic minorities who end up in the slow track for treatment.

There is evidence that, as far as Asian patients are concerned, language difficulties and reluctance to undergo treatment hamper both diagnosis and intervention.

If this is so, perhaps a health education programme needs to be targeted at the ethnic minorities.

But what of the apparent age barrier, highlighted by the fact that intervention and referrals to consultants are much lower in patients over 70?

Is there some severely practical, value-for-money policy at work that regards older people with heart disease as having a lesser priority for treatment because they are already in the last years of their lives?

Surely, treatment and access to it should be determined by clinical needs, not any accountancy-led ageism.

A major recommendation of the report is that more research is necessary to find out why East Lancashire heart patients get a raw deal.

Let that happen. But let's have action, too.

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