Heart service set to save lives

An initiative that sees paramedics take heart attack patients directly to specialist treatment centres could help to save over 100 lives a year in Central and Eastern Cheshire.

North West Ambulance Service has worked with hospitals and primary care trusts on plans that see paramedics taking appropriate cases to specialist heart centres to undergo a procedure known as Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (Primary PCI), also sometimes referred to as primary angioplasty.

The procedure uses a balloon to open up blocked arteries in patients suffering the most severe forms of heart attack, rather than clot-busting drugs known as thrombolysis, offering a better recovery rate and less chance of need for future surgery.

Heart centres for patients in the Central and Eastern Cheshire area are based at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester Royal Infirmary and the Royal Infirmary Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent.

Previously paramedics would take heart attack victims to accident and emergency but the new plans mean that if they meet agreed criteria, patients go immediately to heart centres for specialist care.

Director of Emergency Service at NWAS, Derek Cartwright said: "Taking certain heart attack patients directly to specialist treatment centres saves vital time and means patients get the most appropriate treatment and care.

"Historical data suggests that paramedics will go to over 100 patients a year in the Central and Eastern Cheshire area who will be eligible for this service which has been developed by North West Ambulance Service, local hospitals and the Cheshire and Merseyside Cardiac Network.

"As North West England is associated with one of the highest death rates from Coronary Heart Disease we are extremely pleased to offer this service to patients that will, ultimately, save lives."

Extra training was given to paramedics to enable them to decide which patients to take to specialist centres for the procedure.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.