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Addenbrooke's heart patients in safe hands

16 June 2005

Addenbrooke's Hospital has a higher than average percentage of patients receiving clot-busting treatment within 30 minutes of arriving, says a national report on how the NHS manages heart attacks.

"This is comforting news for heart attack patients. The sooner you are able to assess and treat these patients, the less chance the heart will be damaged further and the better the outlook. It's also good news for the team who work so hard to deliver this care to heart attack patients," said Robert Johnson, Service Delivery Manager for Cardiology at the hospital.

The report, published by the Royal College of Physicians, found that care of heart attack patients is continuing to improve. High quality care of these patients includes the early diagnosis and rapid treatment to re-open the blocked coronary artery responsible for the heart attack, getting blood and oxygen back to the heart. This is usually by treatment with clot-dissolving drugs (thrombolytic treatment) and the prescription of drugs that reduce the risk of further heart attack.

The report shows that at Addenbrooke's, 92% of eligible heart attack patients received the clot-busting drug within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital, compared to a target of 75%.

Other encouraging results from the MINAP (Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project) report show that not only are patients receiving thrombolytic treatment faster, but more ambulance personnel can diagnose heart attack and give thrombolytic treatment before the patient arrives at hospital.

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