Paramedics praised over work with heart victims

5:31pm Wednesday 27th June 2001

The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Ambulance Service has improved its performance in helping heart attack victims.

Ambulance crews attended 1,886 heart attacks during the year 2000 to 2001, and reached 53.5 per cent of patients within eight minutes, compared to 45 per cent in 1999 to 2000.

The service believes the improvement is due to a system introduced last November, which means that ambulances are now sent to serious emergencies before being allowed to go to incidents where no lives were at stake.

Jill Moseley, the service's director of emergency and clinical services, said: "This year the health authorities have provided additional investment of £2.2 million to improve response times, and I expect to see the results of that investment in next year's figures."

The service's latest figures also show a marked improvement in the number of heart attack victims who were attended by paramedics and survived.

In 1999/2000 30 cardiac arrest victims, or 2.8 per cent of the total, were later discharged from hospital, although last year 41 patients, or 3.5 per cent, survived.

The service also found that most heart attacks happen on Mondays, and when the person is at home.

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