West Dunbartonshire heart attack patients to benefit from new care

Nov 28 2008 by Amanda McKendrick, Lennox Herald (main ed)

HEART attack patients are to benefit from fast access to a groundbreaking new service at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank.

The implementation of Optimal Reperfusion for patients whose heart attack is due to a blocked artery will see them diagnosed and taken to a specialist heart treatment centre within 90 minutes.

Those who cannot meet this deadline will be given a clot-busting drug and will be taken direct to a specialist centre to give access to the earliest possible treatment.

As well as Clydebank, the service will also be provided at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride.

Keith Oldroyd, interventional cardiologist at the specialist centre in the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, said: “All heart attacks are not the same and many people will continue to go to their local hospital for care. This service is for those patients whose heart attack is due to a blocked artery. Paramedics can quickly detect this from the equipment they routinely carry in ambulances and the diagnosis can be confirmed by coronary care experts at the specialist centre over the phone.

“This means that suitable patients are brought straight to the specialist centre for treatment to reopen the blocked artery using balloon angioplasty. The clinical benefits for patients are undeniable.”

The Optimal Reperfusion Programme will be phased in throughout the west of Scotland over the next few months and is being rolled out in Clyde in November.