Waiting lists for heart care in Bolton could more than double in size over the next two years.

According to new modelling by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), more than 50,000 people in the North West could be waiting for life saving heart diagnosis and treatment, more than two years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The charity’s forecast shows the number of people waiting for cardiac care in the region in March 2022 could be more than double the size of the waiting list before the pandemic began.

In Bolton the cardiology waiting list in February 2020 was 1,332 and by March 2022 it has been forecast to be 3,111.

The biggest increase in the number of people on cardiac waiting lists could be seen in Stockport, as figures there could increase by a staggering 291 per cent up.

The forecast is of a worse-case-but-possible-scenario where the NHS in England doesn’t get enough investment and is under increased pressure from Covid-19 or from a bad winter, the BHF said.

It comes as a new BHF report, The Untold Heartbreak, reveals without decisive action now, it will take between three and five years for the heart care backlog in England to recover to pre-pandemic levels.

Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, BHF medical director, said: “Even before the pandemic, waiting lists for vital heart care were far too long. As this report shows, the pandemic has pushed the NHS towards breaking point, with devastating consequences for the 910,000 living with heart and circulatory diseases in the North West. The Government must act now to avoid more lives lost to treatable heart conditions.”