$120 million ambition to reduce risk of heart disease in North

In the midst of National Heart Week, the state government reaffirmed its election promise to deliver a $120 million Northern Heart Centre at the Launceston General Hospital.

Heart disease is more prevalent in Tasmania than anywhere else in the country and chest pain is one of the most common reasons for admission at the LGH, North West Regional Hospital and the Mersey Hospital.

Heart attack survivor Phillip Good from Turners Beach in the states' North West suffered a heart attack on Tuesday and said he felt very heavy in the chest and short of breath when it came on.

"It got progressively worse," Mr Good said.

Mr Good said a facility in the North meant he wouldn't need to travel as far as Hobart for specialist care.

"My message is if you feel pressure in your chest, do something about it straight away," he said.

"I kept putting it off for three weeks."

Once complete, the Northern Heart Centre will act as the primary cardiology referral centre in the state's North.

It will include the construction of a second catheterisation lab and the establishment of a dedicated cardiology ward featuring a cardiac day unit and expanded echo and stress testing capacity at the LGH.

Cardiac Tasmania Network chair Paul MacIntyre said the flow on effects from the heart centre would be fantastic for the rest of the state.

"We'll be able to service the North-West of the state which is a problem at the moment in terms of getting patients down, who need to go to the catherisation lab for investigation and potentially intervention," Dr MacIntyre said.

"It will completely open up the North in terms of cardiology services.

"I think the services that we've got in Hobart are fairly well developed - there are some gaps in those services that we hope to address to the strategy - but I think in the next five years we should see a major improvement in equity of access to cardiac services across the state."

He said one of the biggest barriers to care was distance.

"I think that patients in Tasmania don't like to travel too far but sometimes they have to ... what we're looking to do is deliver as high a service as we possibly can at a local level to stop patients travelling," Dr MacIntyre said.

Health Minister Guy Barnett said as a result of the establishment of the heart centre, the vast majority of care would be delivered in the North.

"There will be extra cardiac care beds and another seven currently coronary care unit beds," he said.

"This will take pressure off our emergency department."

The Northern Heart Centre is expected to be delivered by 2029.