A NEW service for cardiac patients has been set up at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, and a Warminster man was one of the first to use it.

Since March 13 the hospital has treated patients who require a coronary angioplasty, a technique to stretch a narrowing artery in the heart. Keith Fryer, of Grenadier Close, Warminster, had been suffering from angina since September 2005. He said: "I woke up in the night with pain in my chest and a numb arm. The following evening the same thing happened and when I went to see the doctor they told me it was angina."

He went into the RUH and had an exercise test where his heart rate was monitored, and then dye was injected into his arteries to show up any furring of the arteries in an x-ray.

Doctors discovered two problem arteries and decided to perform the angioplasty procedure in which a balloon is used to stretch the arteries and prevent them from narrowing any further. Patients have the procedure done under local anaesthetic and can even have music on in theatre to make them feel more at ease.

Mr Fryer, who has two sons and two daughters, said: "I went into hospital on the Monday and came out late Tuesday afternoon, and I only had eight days off work."

The RUH has appointed two consultant cardiologists, Dr Kevin Carson and Dr Robert Lowe, who with lead clinician Dr Richard Mansfield are established angioplasty doctors.

Dr Lowe said: "This procedure will reduce waiting lists and provide high quality local care for patients." Up to three times as many people with heart disease need angioplasty than need a coronary bypass. Before this patients in Wiltshire previously had to travel to Bristol, Oxford or Southampton for treatment.