BRITAIN'S heart tsar has delivered his verdict on emergency heart attack care in Suffolk.

BRITAIN'S heart tsar has delivered his verdict on emergency heart attack care in Suffolk.

Professor Roger Boyle returned to Ipswich following his review of plans to send urgent patients outside of Suffolk for treatment, without the option of giving clot-busting drugs if patients couldn't get to the specialist centre in time.

The proposals caused outrage in Suffolk among patients and clinicians who were concerned that because time is vital in heart attack treatment Suffolk would be put at a disadvantage and left at risk.

However now Professor Boyle has recommended that patients in East Suffolk should continue to be given clot-busting drugs in ambulances but then taken to specialist centres in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

But in West Suffolk patients will not be given clot-busting drugs and will be taken straight to the centres.

Professor Boyle said this system would continue for a three-month trial period to assess how successful it is. Professor Boyle also called on NHS Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital to begin to explore the possibility of developing more specialist heart services at Ipswich Hospital.

However he stressed the difficulties of setting up a specialist centre at the Heath Road site because of a lack of facilities, staff, experience and patient volume.

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