Call for clot-buster drugs on ambulances

PARAMEDICS should carry clot-busting drugs to counteract life-threatening treatment delays for rural patients suffering serious heart attacks, experts say.

MonashHeart emeritus director of cardiology Richard Harper said the drugs were important for rural Victorians who were a long distance from major hospitals and needed urgent treatment.

Professor Harper said three-quarters of Victorians had access to hospitals that provided around-the-clock emergency angioplasty and stenting to re-open blocked arteries.

But rural Victorians were a long way from such treatment, putting them at increased risk of death or long-term disability.

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Professor Harper said Victoria should follow the lead of other states, including Queensland and New South Wales, where paramedics were trained to administer clot-busting drugs to rural and regional patients who faced delays accessing the preferred treatment in hospital.

In such cases, he said, paramedics took an electrocardiogram to confirm the patient was experiencing the most serious type of heart attack in which the coronary artery was completely blocked, known as an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)

They then administered the drugs en route to hospital, greatly improving outcomes for patients.

The Heart Foundation, which backed the call, said about 10,000 Australians died each year from a STEMI heart attack.

An audit of 3000 Australian patients treated for STEMI heart attacks found that only 35 per cent received stenting or clot-busting drugs within the recommended 90-minute timeframe.

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Call for clot-buster drugs on ambulances