42-mile 999 dash for heart attack patients

James Kell • Published 19 Sep 2009 09:00 1 Comment

HEART attack patients in Reading could be sent as far as Southampton under plans to be outlined next week.

A consultation will consider whether the Royal Berkshire Hospital will continue to provide its "gold standard" heart attack treatment, or whether patients must travel 42 miles to Southampton.

The Royal Berks currently performs emergency angioplasties (PPCI) around the clock, but bosses at NHS South Central are looking at how to cover the region as a whole. This means choosing which hospitals from the Isle of Wight to Milton Keynes should be dedicated centres, offering the procedure 24 hours a day.

Two of the three options on the table would see the Royal Berks keep the service, but one possible scenario would leave Southampton as the closest centre to Reading.

The Royal Berks made emergency angioplasties a 24-hour service in April of this year, and one of the people to benefit from the procedure is Mark Titcomb from Purley.

He said: "I would be disappointed to say the least if it went because it's not until something like that happens to you that you find out how things really are."

Building supervisor Mark, 51, told a work colleague when he felt unwell.

Paramedics were called and he suffered a heart attack on arrival at the Royal Berks. He said: "I went in there and they had me down to theatre straight away to put a stent in. It's a brilliant system. It's very reassuring to know they are there any time. Time is of the essence and I don't know how it would work if you had to go to Southampton."

The Royal Berks would still treat heart attack patients using other means like clot-busting drugs (thrombolysis), but studies have shown that PPCI saves more lives and has better longer-term results if delivered quickly.

Chris Birdsall of NHS Berkshire West said: "The key to successful results in treating heart attack is swift treatment. However PPCI is more challenging to deliver as it requires a cardiac catheter laboratory and highly trained staff to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"It is believed that because of this PPCI would be more appropriate in specialist centres possibly supported by daytime services in other centres."

An angioplasty involves a small balloon at the tip of a catheter tube being inserted via an artery in the groin or arm and guided to the blocked heart artery.

It is then inflated and removed, leaving in place a stent - a rigid support which holds back the fatty deposit blocking the artery, allowing blood to flow more easily.

NHS guidelines say the procedure should be performed within two hours of a heart attack to re-establish blood flow as quickly as possible and limit damage to the heart muscle.

The proposals on heart attack provision will be discussed at a meeting of NHS Berkshire West's Health Network on Monday at Reading Town Hall, 6pm-8pm. For more on the consultation contact 0118 982 2823.

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• 

  Peggy Squires
  Unregistered User
  Oct 6, 09:56
  Report comment

  I feel strongly that PPCI should remain at the RBH and would go for option 3.
  
  Having received emergency treatment at both RBH and the London hospital think its necessary to have as many depts of this kind as possible,
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

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