The State Cardiac Reperfusion Strategy will increase access to specialist medical advice and provide cardiac patients with faster treatment from their first symptoms.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the new service would help to meet the needs of rural and regional communities in emergency situations.
“Time plays a major role in treatment and recovery and can mean the difference between an improvement or an adverse outcome, especially in rural and regional areas,” Ms Skinner said.
Better services
The new service will assist people with a suspected heart attack to receive:
- Rapid assessment by paramedics or clinicians in rural community hospitals, including an electrocardiogram (ECG) test.
- Definitive early diagnosis by cardiology and emergency specialists who read ECGs and determine quickly how best to restore blood flow to the heart.
- Rapid approval for immediate transfer to hospitals with access to primary angioplasty.
- A life saving emergency procedure for those with an ongoing heart attack.
- Administration of immediate thrombolytic therapy by paramedics or nurses at remote or regional health services where no doctor is available (to dissolve clots that block blood flow to the heart).
- Expert specialist multidisciplinary care on arrival at hospital.
- Transfer to the nearest local hospital for ongoing monitoring, rehabilitation and recovery.
Find out more about the State Cardiac Reperfusion Strategy at the Agency for Clinical Innovation website.
