Heart Diseases: Health Services

Tim Loughton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will instruct the Myocardial Infarction Audit Project to investigate the impact of centralising services for heart attack treatment on patient outcomes.

Ann Keen
The Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project (MINAP) database is linked to the Office of National Statistics data on mortality and is therefore able to provide analyses of patient outcomes as and when required.

A more comprehensive assessment of the impact of centralising services for heart attack treatment will be provided by the results of a feasibility study which the Department is conducting jointly with the British Cardiac Vascular Society into extending the provision of specialist primary angioplasty services for treatment of heart attack. A report on interim findings from the study is due shortly and a final report during 2008.