'Urgent review' of heart scheme

Angioplasty treats heart attack victims by unblocking arteries

A plan to start treating severe heart attack sufferers from east Suffolk at hospitals outside the county is to be reviewed after public opposition.

NHS Suffolk said it had asked the National Director for Heart Disease and Stroke, Prof Roger Boyle CBE, to "urgently review" the scheme.

It would have meant severe heart attacks sufferers in east Suffolk not being treated in Ipswich but elsewhere.

The decision came after high levels of public concern, NHS Suffolk said.

Plan postponed

The plan drawn up by NHS Suffolk and the East of England NHS Specialist Commissioning Group involved sending patients from east Suffolk to Specialist Heart Attack Centres in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Middlesex or Essex.

It was due to go ahead on 1 June but has now been put on hold while the review goes ahead.

Prof Boyle will also advise on the overall provision of the treatment, formerly known as angioplasty, but now called primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), at Ipswich hospital.

PPCI involves keyhole surgery that uses small balloons to help unblock arteries.

We feel it right to ask the country's leading expert to review the plans so that he can give people the reassurance that they are seeking Carole Taylor-Brown, chief executive of NHS Suffolk

Patients in east Suffolk who suffer a severe heart attack will continue to receive the current clot-dispersing treatment called pre-hospital thrombolysis.

The NHS has also confirmed that the current drugs used for thrombolysis will continue to be available at all hospitals, including Ipswich Hospital.

They will also be available in ambulances if a patient cannot be taken to one of the Specialist Heart Attack Centres in time.

Carole Taylor-Brown, chief executive of NHS Suffolk, said: "PPCI has been clinically proven to be the most effective treatment for severe heart attacks.

"However, we understand people's concerns that its introduction will mean patients being taken to hospitals outside the area.

"We therefore feel it right to ask the country's leading expert to review the plans so that he can give people the reassurance that they are seeking."

Ms Taylor-Brown said the ambulance trust had assured her they would be able to deliver patients from east Suffolk to one of the specialist centres.