About us

About the Heart Attack Centre

Based at The London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green, the 24-hour emergency heart attack centre is the biggest of its kind in the UK and one of the largest in the world, serving a population of over two million people from the City of London to the M25. In its first year, the centre has halved the number of deaths amongst heart attack patients. The creation of the centre is the biggest change in the way heart attacks have been treated in the last 40 years, and has improved the care patients receive.

The Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre provides round-the-clock emergency medical care for people who are having a heart attack. Patients who previously would have been taken to A&E departments across east London are now taken to the centre for treatment. Paramedics from London Ambulance Service are also specially trained to diagnose heart attacks so that they can bring patients directly to the centre.

Once at the centre, a heart specialist (cardiologist) will assess the patient and undertake a minimally invasive procedure called an angioplasty to clear the blockage and stop the heart attack.

Impressive success rates

Traditional methods of treatments in the UK used to achieve a mortality rate amongst heart attack patients of approximately 12%. However since the new centre opened in April 2006, doctors have reduced this to 5%.

The centre receives some of the sickest heart attack patients for whom the mortality rates were previously nearly 100 per cent. These include people who are suffering conditions such as cardiogenic shock where the heart stops pumping enough blood for the body to function. Impressively the centre has managed to reduce mortality amongst this group to 50 per cent.

To view the BBC’s coverage on our impressive statistics, please click here .

Reduced time spent in hospital

As well as improved mortality rates, the centre also achieves far better discharge times with patients often being able to return home after just 48 hours compared with the 8-10 days they faced with traditional treatments. This is both better for the patient and the centre which is able to treat more patients.

Interesting statistics

Research shows that the busiest hour at the Heart Attack Centre is from 10.30am-11.30am. These are usually patients who have suffered a heart attack because of the stress that waking up in the morning can have on people. A second peak in activity also occurs in the early evening, again probably caused by the stress of a day’s work and the busy commute home. In total 50 per cent of patients are brought into the Heart Attack Centre out of hours – between 6pm and 8am.

The range of patients treated at the Centre has also been surprising with people as young as 24 years of age being brought in with heart attacks. Other patients have included pregnant women and fit individuals such as professional sportsmen and policemen.

For find out a patient’s view of the treatment received at the Heart Attack Centre, please visit the patient stories section.

The content for this website was written by Dr Rodney De Palma, Specialist Registrar in Interventional Cardiology.