EDITORIAL How many cath labs do we need? D Hackett, for the British Cardiac Society Guidelines and Medical Practice Committee

The need for laboratories for cardiac catheterisation and angiography, and pacemaker implantation, is assessed The National Service Framework (NSF) forcoronary heart disease (CHD) states that: “Byinternational standards, the UK has high rates of CHD but low rates of coronary artery revascularisation. This does not appear to be because most other countries are over-using revascularisation but rather there has been under-provision of revascularisation in the UK. Another major difference between the UK and most other developed countries is that people in the UK wait considerably longer for investigation and treatment than people elsewhere.”1 The NSF has been welcomed by the cardiology community as a means to improve the medica