New facilities will open next year

The government money will be used to expand the current cardiac centre.

The government is investing �93m pounds in heart treatment facilities across England.

Of that, �16.6m is being spent at Glenfield, and the local health authority is adding more money to bring the total to �17.3m.

There won't be so many patients waiting quite as long Dr Doug Skehan

New facilities will include a new dedicated heart theatre, 17 in-patient beds, two day case beds and a paediatric out-patient facility.

The Clinical Director of Cardiac Services, Dr Doug Skehan, said: "What we can offer is treating more patients.

"I believe we will be able to treat them in a faster time scale so there won't be so many patients waiting quite as long as they have to at the moment."

The first of the new facilities should be open by December 2004.