'Ring for help when heart attack symptoms begin', report says

The audit analysed 5,629 patients who had suffered heart attacks and found only 37% sought medical help within 60 minutes of symptoms starting. Picture: Denis Minihane

Calling the emergency services immediately if someone has a heart attack increases their chance of survival, an audit of heart attacks in Ireland has found.

About 6,000 people are taken to hospitals annually because of heart attacks and one-quarter of these are major heart attacks. The audit analysed 5,629 such patients and found only 37% sought medical help within 60 minutes of symptoms starting.

The report, published on Wednesday, also highlights smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol as significant risk factors leading to major heart attacks.

Treatment for major heart attacks should be delivered within 120 minutes of the first medical contact, the Irish Heart Attack Audit National Report 2017-2020 states. 

This percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) involves inserting a wire into the blocked artery and is delivered at 10 specialist centres. By calling 999 or 112 quickly, patients can be taken directly to a hospital with such a centre.

According to this analysis “patients who had a timely primary PCI had a 2.8% in-hospital mortality rate, compared to 5.2% in patients who are treated beyond the 120-minute window.” 

Dr Ronan Margey, clinical lead of Irish Heart Attack Audit, welcomed improvements in care. “Whilst standardisation of care has occurred and access to reperfusion has improved, challenges remain,” he said.

He called for improved symptom recognition and more pre-hospital diagnosis, saying this results in “transporting patients directly to PCI centres so that the right patient receives the right care in the right location at the right time.” 

He said: “We can see from our data that this results in faster restoration of blood flow to the heart, translating into improved heart attack survival.” 

In all, 68% of the patients audited were admitted directly to a PCI centre with 28% going to a hospital without a PCI first.

The large hospitals in Cork, Limerick and Waterford are among the PCI centres.