'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.