CARDIAC CARE
D A third of workers believe their workplace
hinders a healthy lifestyle
espite the vast majority (91%) of workers believing
that it is their employers’ responsibility to create a healthy working environment, nearly a third of employees feel their workplace actually hinders their ability to lead a healthy lifestyle, according to new independent research commissioned by the World Heart Federation and conducted by Opinion Health.
The results were launched ahead of World Heart Day, the largest global awareness campaign on heart disease and stroke, initiated by the World Heart Federation and supported by the British Cardiovascular Society.
“The survey results suggest links between different job sectors and the level of engagement in
workplace-wellness initiatives or steps taken towards a heart- healthy lifestyle,” said Dr Kathryn Taubert, senior science officer at the World Heart Federation.
“As many of us spend over half of our waking hours at work, the workplace is the ideal setting to encourage behaviours to
minimise a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease.”
Every year, approximately 17.1 million lives are claimed by the global burden of cardiovascular disease yet most heart disease and stroke is preventable. On World Heart Day, the World Heart Federation and the British Cardiovascular Society
encouraged both employers and employees to take simple steps to improve heart-health in their workplace by, for example, promoting physical activity via gym memberships or cycle to work schemes. Employees could ensure they eat healthily at work, and stop smoking to ensure a smoke-free workplace.
F Primary angioplasty overtakes clot-busting
drugs for the first time
or the first time, patients in England who have had a heart
attack are more likely to have their damaged artery opened with a balloon catheter (primary angioplasty) than receive clot- busting drugs (thrombolysis).
Figures from the ninth annual MINAP audit show that 63% of eligible patients had the balloon catheter procedure compared to 44% in 2008/9. In Wales the increase was from 11% to 22%. .
Heart attack is common and remains a major cause of death and ill health. Importantly, prompt and appropriate treatment reduces the likelihood of death and recurrent heart attack. Good treatment coupled with cardiac rehabilitation promotes better recovery.
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Primary angioplasty for eligible patients is the preferred treatment if it can be provided promptly. Once a patient is recognised as having a heart attack, ambulance staff take the patient directly to the catheter laboratory of the nearest heart attack centre, often bypassing smaller hospitals and the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department. This year’s results show that 76% of patients that were treated with primary angioplasty were admitted directly to a heart attack centre in England, and 85% in Wales, meaning that the procedure can be carried out more quickly with better patient outcomes.
As more patients are taken directly to hospital for
angioplasty, fewer patients were receiving clot-busting drugs,
but of those 69% did receive it quickly, within 60 minutes of calling for professional help. For many ambulance services, the focus has shifted from giving patients the clot-busting drugs in the ambulance before they reach hospital, to making sure patients reach a heart attack centre quickly, so the number of patients receiving treatment in the ambulance has dropped by 36.7%.
These results show a significant sea-change in NHS services, with huge progress towards best practice and better patient outcomes. Also, fewer patients overall are dying following a heart attack, partly because of the need for hospitals to record and publish their results as part of the MINAP audit.
Professor Roger Boyle, National Director for Heart Disease and Stroke, said: “This year we have reached a milestone as more than 60 per cent of heart attack patients receive primary angioplasty.
“This treatment is a clear example of how the NHS can improve outcomes for patients through more efficient services – it is associated with shorter hospital stays and better patient outcomes.
“Clinical audits like this are vital sources of information for patients and clinicians. We want to expand their use in the NHS so that better information leads to better results for patients and health outcomes that are among the best in the world.”
Sep/Oct 10
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