HEART patients from the North-East could soon have their operations in South Africa under Government plans to speed up surgery.

The prospect of patients from the region flying thousands of miles to Cape Town or Johannesburg has moved a step closer after Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced he was taking action over long waits for treatment.

From this summer, heart patients waiting longer than six months can choose where they want to have their operations.

While some will be seen at other NHS hospitals or private clinics, a significant number are likely to be treated overseas.

Middlesbrough heart specialist Dr Jim Hall, who chairs the Northern and Yorkshire regional heart task force, said discussions with prospective partners had already taken place and "to some extent, the world's the limit".

Once funding is available, patients from the region might be treated in South Africa, said Dr Hall.

He confirmed that the heart unit at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, had been approached by representatives of South African hospitals.

But Dr Hall said it was more likely that patients fit enough to travel abroad would be treated in countries such as Germany, France and Holland.

"Funding is being made available to make overseas treatment a realistic option," said Dr Hall.

The cardiologist said he thought the move by the Darlington MP was "a bold step".

"It will be quite difficult to implement but there is a willingness on all sides to make it work," said Dr Hall.

Three years ago, The Northern Echo visited a heart unit in Breda, Holland, and discovered that Dutch heart patients were treated much faster than their UK counterparts.

We launched our A Chance To Live campaign, and Mr Milburn has acknowledged the part played by The Northern Echo in highlighting deficiencies in the NHS.

Breda heart surgeon Jan Witkopf said British health care managers had been at the Breda hospital last week to investigate spare capacity for heart surgery.

"On Monday and Wednesday we had people from the UK here at this hospital," said Mr Witkopf. "It's at a very premature stage at the moment, but we are thinking about it and we are interested."

Mr Witkopf said urgent heart patients had bypass operations immediately while less urgent cases had surgery within a week.

Mr Milburn has announced a national plan to improve treatment for heart patients.

As part of that plan, existing heart units are expanding, a new unit is being built in Wolverhampton, and the NHS recently announced plans to take over a private heart hospital in London.

Mr Milburn's aim is that by 2008, no one will wait more than three months for a bypass operation.

At the James Cook Hospital emergency heart cases are operated on immediately and about 40 per cent of cases are operated on within six weeks.

For routine, non-urgent heart surgery the maximum wait at Middlesbrough was now below 12 months, a situation Dr Hall described as a "significant" development.

The plan to expand capacity at the Middlesbrough heart unit is on target.

When it opens next March, the aim is to push up the number of heart bypasses it can perform from 1,200 per year to about 1,800.

This week ten Spanish nurses arrived at the Middlesbrough hospital. Most of them are expected to work in the heart unit.

Plans are also in hand to expand capacity at the Freeman heart unit in Newcastle so surgeons can perform about 1,300 bypasses instead of 900.