Advances In Cardiac Care At Musgrove Park Hospital, Somerset, England

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Also Included In: Heart Disease
Article Date: 13 Nov 2008 - 2:00 PST

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Dr Stuart Walker, Consultant Cardiologist at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, recently told a meeting about how advances in cardiac care would benefit patients in Somerset.

Dr Walker was the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Trust and spoke about the treatment given to patient Mrs W recently. Brought in to Musgrove Park with heart failure, caused by a severe heart attack, Mrs W was taken straight to the cardiology department for emergency intervention.

"For patients such as Mrs W, the chance of dying given this situation is about 90%" said Dr Walker. "But we were able to carry out an emergency heart procedure called a primary angioplasty, where a catheter is inserted into the blocked arteries in the heart to clear them and put in a small tube called a stent to support them. This is all done under local anaesthetic".

Mrs W was home within three days, feeling well and mobile again.

Peter Lewis, Deputy Chief Executive at Musgrove Park, said "We know how important it is for people to get the life saving treatment they need as quickly as possible. With the expansion of our cardiac facilities at Musgrove we are now able to provide more angioplasties for more patients. We are now developing plans to further expand the work to provide primary angioplasties 24 hours a day."

Musgrove Park Hospital Taunton is part of Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

The hospital serves a population of 340,000 - primarily living in the area served by NHS South West. Each year almost 40,000 patients are admitted as emergencies; 10,000 patients are admitted for elective surgery; 26,000 are seen for day case surgery; 232,000 patients attend outpatient clinics; 48,000 attend Accident and Emergency, 170,000 diagnostic examinations take place and over 3000 babies are born in the Maternity Department. Almost 1000 patients are admitted to Critical Care each year.

Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has an annual budget of £180 million. The hospital has over 700 beds, 30 wards, 15 operating theatres, a fully equipped diagnostic imaging department and employs 4,145 staff.

Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust