A health board has announced that some major operations in north Wales will no longer go ahead.

Betsy Cadwalader Health Board said it is pausing the provision of planned and emergency open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery to help improve its other care.

The health board confirmed that an “incident” had occurred, but said the decision was not based solely on this and that other vascular care would continue as normal.

About 10 to 15 patients per year must travel across the border to have their surgery in England.

Vascular services diagnose and treat problems with people’s arteries, veins, or circulation, and are often used by patients who have other health problems, such as diabetes.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a swelling in the aorta, the main artery carrying blood from the heart to the rest of the body.

If not detected early it can be life threatening.

Chief executive Carol Shillabeer said the health board worked closely with vascular experts in Wales and across the UK to reach its decision.

He said patients waiting for the surgery would be able to have it at Royal Stoke University Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent “in the short term”.

“Our collaboration with Stoke is long-term and is based on a strong partnership approach,” he said.

“We will always be transparent about the challenges of providing this particular element of vascular services to the population of North Wales and this pause is part of ongoing reviews to continue to provide safe services.”

The health board said it was contacting a “very small number” of affected patients to discuss options.

The health board stated that AAA surgeries account for 0.2% of annual vascular service activity and approximately 6.5% of vascular surgical procedures.

Complex vascular services were centralized at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in April 2019, having previously been split between Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor and Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

The service has since been under scrutiny and, in 2022, will be approved by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS). Risks to patient safety found in many areasconcluding that in some cases, physicians were “probably acting beyond the limits of their competence”.

In the same year, the Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) classified the service as “requiring significant improvement”.

last year, That situation was mitigated by HIW Who said the quality of care is improving, although further improvement is needed.