New Heart Attack Service For East London

Main Category: Heart Disease
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 27 Feb 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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A new and unique cardiology service for patients most at risk of having a heart attack is to be launched at Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre in Bethnal Green in April.

Doctors will for the first time intervene with advanced cardiology procedures at the 'early warning' stage instead of waiting to treat patients who have suffered a full-blown heart attack.

The aim is to give east London, which has the most cardiovascular disease in London, a comprehensive round-the-clock specialist cover for the whole spectrum of acute heart attack illnesses.

The new 24/7 emergency service will strive to save around 1,800 at-risk patients a year from having heart attacks in the future.

Following the success of the Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre (HAC) service, which has treated or operated on around 9,000 people each year since it opened in April 2006, the Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre extension (HACX) will be the first of its kind in the world.

It will cater specifically for those who have a partial blockage of a heart artery, which, if left untreated, could lead to a complete blockage and a full-blown heart attack. Patients with partial blockages can spend weeks or even months before a full diagnosis happens and treatment commences.

The new service will streamline the patient pathway by transferring the patient directly from their local A&E to the HACX, saving valuable time and avoiding the need for multiple appointments for tests and treatment. The new rapid access service will ensure that all patients at risk of a major heart attack will be diagnosed and treated within 24-hours compared to 72-hours or longer at present.

Staffed by dedicated experts and nurses all trained in cardiology, a new £140,000 annexe has been specially set aside for the new service. A successful pilot trial at The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and at Newham General Hospital targeted patients at high-risk of a threatened heart attack between November 2007 and February 2008. It concluded that patients could significantly reduce their length of stay in hospital and improve their chances of survival if this new service was provided.

International expert and senior cardiologist at Barts and The London Heart and Chest Centre, Professor Martin Rothman said:

"We wanted to test the feasibility of rapid access cardiology and having looked in detail at all the stages patients currently go through, we decided it would save a lot of lives, a lot of money and a lot of time to launch this service.

"By doing this we will be saving patients now from having heart attacks in the future. Our pilot demonstrated quite clearly we can reduce the length of stay for patients in hospital and that is a significant achievement. This is also beneficial to the NHS, as it reduces costs involved in the management of patients suffering from chest pain. All-in-all the new service will act as an early warning system for heart attack which is probably the best contingency measure one could ask for.

"Patients will still go to their local hospital A&E department with chest pains, where they will have an ECG test and some specific blood tests looking for early signs of heart muscle injury.

"What's new is that those at high risk will then be transported immediately to Barts and The London Heart and Chest Centre for an angiography to assess their heart. If we find arteries that are severely narrowed or partially blocked with a blood clot, then they will usually have an angioplasty to open up and secure the artery. We will be able to discharge selected patients home within 48-hrs of presentation.

"This service will complement the pioneering Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre service, which already treats full-blown heart attacks immediately.''
v One patient who recently recovered from a heart attack after an angioplasty at the Barts and The London Heart and Chest Centre, Stuart Gibbins a 51 year old hairdresser from Chadwell Heath said the new service sounded like a "fantastic idea":

"I cannot think of a better service to have to help people save time. This service should help save hundreds of lives in the long run. Barts and The London Heart Centre may look an old building from outside but it's all new inside, the staff all know what they are doing and are so friendly, nice and professional", said Stuart.

Patients and clinicians can find out more about Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre at http://www.bartsandthelondon.nhs/hac

Notes

- The Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre currently treats between five and six hundred major heart attack patients every year

- The Barts and London NHS Trust Heart Attack Centre was awarded the Acute and Primary Care Innovation Award by the Health Service Journal for successful fast track treatment of heart attack sufferers (balloon angioplasty) in December 2008 - Barts and The London is one of Britain's top teaching hospital trusts. Our mission is literally to bring excellence to life - to give patients the best possible care so that they can live better, fuller, longer lives

- Our world-renowned hospitals - St Bartholomew's (Barts) in the City, The Royal London in Whitechapel and The London Chest in Bethnal Green - have made and continue to make an outstanding contribution to modern medicine. Read more about our full portfolio of services at http://www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk

- Our £1 billion new hospitals programme is set to transform healthcare facilities locally. When completed the new hospital at The Royal London will be the biggest new hospital in the country, while the new buildings at Barts will house a brand-new cancer hospital and cardiac centre.

Barts and The London