Lottery boost for NHS heart services

Some 1,400 ambulances will get ECG equipment

More than £26m of National Lottery money is to be spent on improving NHS heart services.

The New Opportunities Fund has announced funding of £10m to pay for electro-cardiogram machines on 1,400 ambulances across England.

A further £16.5m will be shared between 21 hospitals to enable them to buy heart-monitoring equipment.

This new equipment is a step towards achieving our ultimate aim of saving 200,000 lives by reducing deaths from heart disease and stroke

Public Health Minister Yvette Cooper

The package is part of efforts to eliminate variations in care for patients with heart disease.

The ECG machines will enable ambulance crews to administer vital clot-busting drugs to heart attack patients and to measure heart rhythm and damage.

This information can then be sent directly to specialist heart teams in hospitals enabling them to take swift action when the patient arrives.

The money will more than double the number of ambulances with this type of equipment.

Benefit patients

Officials said plans were moving forward on allocating new cardiac angiography equipment in 21 hospitals in England.

The equipment will enable more hospitals to diagnose and treat patients with heart disease and is aimed at reducing the distances people have to travel for medical care.

It follows last November's decision to spend £65m buying cardiac angiography equipment for 38 hospitals across England.

Baroness Jill Pitkeathley, chairwoman of the New Opportunities Fund, said the funding would benefit patients.

"There are variations in quality and access to some coronary heart disease services across the country. This funding will help ensure that all patients have access to the right treatment at the right time."

Unnecessary deaths

Public Health Minister Yvette Cooper welcomed the funding.

She said: "Thousands of lives are lost unnecessarily every year because heart attack patients aren't treated quickly enough.

"This new equipment is a step towards achieving our ultimate aim of saving 200,000 lives by reducing deaths from heart disease and stroke by 40% over the next eight years."

Richard Diment, chief executive of the Ambulance Service Association, said: "The survival rates of heart attack patients will be significantly improved because of these new facilities in ambulances.

"Speed is all-important in responding to the needs of these patients who now be able to receive clot-busting drugs much quicker."

The money comes from the New Opportunities Fund's health programme, which is spending a total of £89.5m on new diagnostic equipment for NHS hospitals in England to treat heart disease, stroke and cancer.

A further £52m is being spent on boosting consumption of fruit and vegetables.