Women wait longer for heart care

WOMEN who suffer a heart attack are forced to wait longer than men for treatment in Irish hospitals, research revealed yesterday.

Nurses and doctors in casualty departments at a number of Ireland’s major hospitals left women waiting up to an hour longer than men to be admitted to dedicated care units.

The study at six major teaching hospitals in Dublin found certain treatments had to be skipped because women had been left waiting for treatment for too long.

The study of 890 patients, 613 men and 277 women published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing revealed women waited on average half an hour to be medically assessed, compared with 20 minutes for men.

Women also had to wait 55 minutes to be given aspirin, which men were given in 33 minutes.

The study revealed women waited an average of 70 minutes for reperfusion therapy - which restores blood flow to the heart - compared with 52 minutes for men.

The sooner reperfusion therapy is delivered after a heart attack, the more heart muscle is saved from damage.

The study, headed by Dr Sharon O’Donnell from Trinity College Dublin, reported that only 35% of women received the therapy treatment, compared with 43% of men.

In total 40% of women and 25% of men did not receive the therapy, because healthcare staff stated it was too late to be clinically effective.

Dr O’Donnell noted women were suffering greater risks to their health because they were not getting the best care quickly.

“Treatment delays experienced by women may limit their potential to achieve maximum benefit from reperfusion therapies, which have been clinically proven to work more effectively when administered early,” Dr O’Donnell said.

“This could result in women being exposed to a greater rate of life-threatening complications and less favourable outcomes than their male counterparts.

“The image of the typical male heart attack victim must be corrected in the minds of triage nurses - who carry out initial assessments in casualty departments - and other healthcare staff.

“Better healthcare training and clinical awareness are needed if women who have heart attacks are to receive the same care as men.”

It also estimated that the average time it took for women to be transferred to the coronary care unit from the casualty department at three hours and 56 minutes - 54 minutes longer than men.