§ Dr. Evan HarrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of patients waited less than 20 minutes for thrombolysis after arriving in hospital in(a) England, (b) each strategic health authority and (c) each NHS trust at the latest date for which statistics are available; [104411]
(2) what percentage of patients waited less than 20 minutes for thrombolysis after arriving in hospital in (a) England, (b) each strategic health authority and (c) each NHS trust in each period for which statistics have been collected centrally. [104882]
§ Ms BlearsStatistics on the time patients wait for thrombolysis are collected through the Myocardial Infarct National Audit Project (MINAP) run by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). MINAP shows that for the last three months of 2002, 44 per cent. of clinically eligible heart attack patients in England were treated within 20 minutes of hospital arrival, an increase of 24 per cent. over the same period in 2000. The data for strategic health authorities and hospitals in England where heart attack patients are treated are available online to individual health authorities and trusts for monitoring purposes. The RCP published the data covering the first six months of 2002 on 19 November 2002 and copies of the report will be placed in the Library. The RCP plans a further publication which will include the full 2002 dataset later this year.