CUH boosts heart attack response times

HEART attack patients are getting life-saving treatment nearly three times faster thanks to major improvements in the emergency department at Cork University Hospital.

The so-called “door to needle” time has been cut from 126 minutes last January to just 48 minutes in September, according to a report carried out by medical experts.

Death rates and complications following a heart attack can be dramatically reduced by giving injections of thrombolytic or clot busting drugs to suitable patients. To be fully effective, these drugs need to be given as speedily as possible to heart attack victims.