One of the Countries Top Heart Care Hospitals – Ashford and St Peter’s

A report published today shows that cardiac care at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust is among the best in the country with above average scores across the board.

The Royal College of Physicians report ‘How the NHS manages heart attacks 2007’ summarises the results of the Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project (MINAP) for 2006/7. The data collected in the audit includes performance by hospitals and ambulance services against the standard and priorities for treatment of heart attack set out in the National Service Framework (NSF) for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) which was published in March 2000.

The results for Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust are:

“This report demonstrates that we have excellent cardiac care at Ashford and St. Peter’s – well above the average for the country,” says Dr David Fluck, cardiac consultant at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust.  “Not only do we provide excellent cardiac care but we are the only NHS hospital in Surrey to provide cardiac angioplasty saving patients a long and stressful journey into London.   Our coronary care unit consistently gets excellent feedback from patients.”

Angioplasty is surgery to open up a coronary artery.  It is usually carried out after recovery from the heart attack but in some specialized units, it may be performed as an emergency treatment for people having a very serious heart attack.   A tiny wire with a sausage-shaped balloon at the end is put into a large artery in the groin or arm. It is then passed through the blood vessels up to the heart and into the narrowed section of a coronary artery using X-ray guidance. The balloon is then blown up inside the narrowed part of the artery to open it wide again.   A stent (a flexible metal mesh) is usually inserted into the artery to help keep it open afterwards.

Ashford and St. Peter’s provides a full cardiology service for patients including:

·          Full echocardiography service

·          Dedicated coronary care unit with centralised monitoring and dedicated image intensification

·          Electrocardiography

·          Electrophysiological study (EPS)  +/- ablation - the only hospital in Surrey to provide this

·          Fitting implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) - the only hospital in Surrey to provide this

·          Cardiac event monitoring and full cardiac rhythm management

·          Cardiac angioplasty – the only hospital  in Surrey to provide this

·          Cardiac angiography

·          Cardiac rehabilitation service

·          Pacemaker implantation and follow-up

Dr Fluck continued: “One of the interesting factors in all this is that around half of all people suffering chest pain make their own way to hospital rather than calling 999 for an ambulance.   Ambulance crews in Surrey are now trained to administerthrombolysis at the scene and the quicker this is administered the better the patient’s chances of making a full recovery.   It is therefore very important that people who are suffering a chest pain call the ambulance service.”

Welcoming the Trust’s results Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals Chief Executive Glenn Douglas said: “We recognised several years ago that we needed to improve our cardiac care services and this report recognises that we have done just that.    It is a tribute to the excellent team work amongst doctors, nurses and all the other staff in our cardiology and A&E departments.”   

Turning to the future Mr Douglas said: “Recent data published by the Healthcare Commission in their report ‘Pushing the boundaries – Improving Services for Patients with Heart Failure’ showed that whilst services for patients are adequate we can still improve.   That is why I believe that we must create a specialist centre for the treatment of heart failure bringing together the current specialist cardiac services in west Surrey.   This was the thrust of the Clinical Options Report published by Surrey PCT earlier this year and other national reports have demonstrated that more lives could be saved if patients were to be treated by a specialist centre.   We are discussing how this can be taken forward with neighbouring Trusts and I welcome the review of Stroke services announced by the Department of Health earlier this week.”

A heart failure steering group is addressing the results of the Healthcare Commission review.  The Heart Improvement Team are running a Heart Failure Project to reduce emergency admissions, readmission and length of stay by improving patient pathways and the co-ordination of services between primary and secondary care.