‘Fewer survive heart attacks’ on NHS

An analysis has found that between 2004 and 2010 over a third more Britons than Swedes died within a month of having a heart attack.

The study of half a million patients concludes more than 11,000 deaths could have been avoided in the UK if standards were as good as Sweden’s.

A key reason for the striking difference between the two countries is that British patients are not receiving the best possible treatment, say the experts.

Prof Harry Hemingway, from University College London, who led the research published today in The Lancet medical journal, said: “Our findings are a cause for concern. The uptake and use of new technologies and effective treatments recommended in guidelines has been far quicker in Sweden. This has contributed to large differences in the management and outcomes of patients.”

The results showed that 30 days after a heart attack, 10.5 per cent of patients discharged from hospital were dead in the UK compared with 7.6 per cent in Sweden.

Co-author Tomas Jernberg, from the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden, said: “Our findings suggest that failure to get the best treatment is one likely reason why short-term survival for heart attack patients is lower in the UK.”

In particular, procedures to open up constricted coronary arteries, such as balloon angioplasty and stent placement, were used more often and earlier in Sweden, where they were applied in three in five cases compared with one in five in the UK.

Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The lesson here for the UK is that we need to be led by the research and introduce pioneering practices quickly and on a large scale.”