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Threatened A&E is one of the best

Jeni Harvey
27/ 7/2006

THREATENED Accident and Emergency services at North Manchester General hospital are among the best in the country when it comes to dealing with heart attacks.

Emergency teams at the Crumpsall hospital have beaten other hospitals from across the country in their response times for giving lifesaving clot-busting drugs to heart attack patients.

A government study, known as the Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project, studied the work of not only staff in the A&E department but that of ambulance teams.

And it was found that, between April 2005 and March 2006, 79 per cent of patients suffering from heart attacks were given lifesaving thrombolysis injections within an hour of calling for help - compared to a target of 68 per cent and a national average of 58 per cent.

This comes at a time when the hospital's Accident and Emergency and acute medicine departments are under threat, under a Pennine Acute Trust shake-up known as 'Healthy Futures'.

As Guardian readers will be aware, there is a chance that those departments may be taken out of North Manchester and Rochdale Infirmary, leaving emergency services at only the Royal Oldham and Fairfield Hospital in Bury.

Shaun O'Brien, thrombolysis co-ordinator for North Manchester General Hospital, said: "The audit is published in a way which allows you to compare how different hospitals performed, and we're delighted to see that all the hard work at North Manchester from both A&E staff and the ambulance service has put us well above the national average."

Bob Chadwick, acting chief executive of the Pennine Acute Trust, said: "The work of our staff and ambulance staff is bringing real benefits to patients who have suffered a heart attack.

"Staff involved have increased North Manchester's performance by a massive 17 percentage points in one year - that's an achievement to be proud of."