Heart patients receive major awareness boost with first patientfocused heart attack and heart failure audit reports
Cardiac patients and their families are set to receive a major boost in information about heart
conditions with the launch today of the two major patient-focused reports covering heart attack and
heart failure care.
These are the first-ever patient versions of the annual MINAP (heart attack care) and National Heart
Failure Audit reports and have been written in collaboration with patient representatives in an attempt
to increase awareness of the audits, particularly in patients with cardiovascular disease and their
families. It is hoped that this will empower patients and the public to question hospitals that fail to
deliver high quality care, resulting in sub-optimal outcomes. Both audits have shown that patients who
receive specialist cardiology care have better outcomes.
The reports condense the findings from the MINAP Annual Public Report 2011/12 and the National
Heart Failure Audit 2011/12 Annual Report into shorter summaries and explain the purpose of the
audits. Also included are straightforward explanations of the clinical concepts involved and these use
everyday language than the Annual Reports.
The patient-friendly reports have been published MINAP and the National Heart Failure Audit are
managed by NICOR (National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research), part of the Institute
of Cardiovascular Science at UCL, and commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement
Partnership (HQIP).
MINAP examines the quality of care for heart attack patients, which remains a major cause of
premature death in the U.K. Prompt and appropriate treatment reduces the likelihood of death and
further heart attack, and can lead to full recovery. There are two types of heart attacks – STEMI and
nSTEMI – each requiring slightly different early treatment.
Primary PCI is the preferred treatment for patients with STEMI, if it can be provided promptly. The
11th MINAP Public Report shows that when patients are admitted directly to a Heart Attack Centre,
89% of patients treated with primary PCI were treated within 150 minutes of calling for help,
compared to 51% of patients who were initially admitted to a hospital that does not perform primary
PCI. 92% of patients were treated with primary PCI within 90 minutes of arrival at the Heart Attack
Centre
Specialist involvement is important because patients are more likely to receive treatments
recommended in national and international guidelines. In 2011/12, 92% of nSTEMI patients were
seen by a cardiologist or member of their team. As a result, the recent years have also seen an
increase from 30% (2003) to 76% (2012) of patients referred for or receiving a coronary angiogram,
the recommended procedure for identifying patients that require PCI.
The National Heart Failure Audit monitors the treatment and care of acute patients admitted to
hospital with a primary diagnosis of heart failure. The 2011/12 report covers patients discharged from
hospital between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012. Heart failure affects an estimated 900,000 people
in the U.K., and accounts for around 5% of all emergency admissions to hospital.
The National Heart Failure Audit 2011/12 Public and Patient Report highlights the urgent need for
more patients who are admitted to hospital with heart failure to receive specialist care on a cardiology
ward. This recommended practice reduces deaths and improves access to treatments and specialist
follow-up. The report shows that the use of recommended medications, as well as referral to specialist
cardiology follow-up services, is strongly associated with improved outcomes.
The full reports will be published on the NICOR website on Wednesday 30th January
2012. The MINAP report can be found at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/nicor/audits/minap/publicreports. The National Heart Failure Audit report can be
found at www.ucl.ac.uk/nicor/wudits/heartfailure/additionalfiles.
Contact details
For further information regarding MINAP, please contact Lucia Gavalova on 0203 108 3926 or at
l.gavalova@ucl.ac.uk.
For further information regarding the National Heart Failure Audit, please contact Polly Mitchell on
0203 108 3927 or at polly.mitchell@ucl.ac.uk.
Notes to Editors
The National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) is a partnership of clinicians, IT experts,
statisticians, academics and managers which manages six cardiovascular clinical audits and three clinical registries. NICOR
analyses and distributes information about clinical practice in order to drive up the quality of care for patients. It is part of the
Institute of Cardiovascular Science at University College London.
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) is led by a consortium of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges,
the Royal College of Nursing and National Voices. Its aim is to promote quality improvement, and in particular to increase the
impact of clinical audit in England and Wales. HQIP hosts the contract to manage and develop the National Clinical Audit and
Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP). The programme comprises 30 clinical audits that cover care provided to people with
a wide range of medical, surgical and mental health conditions. More information can be found at http://www.hqip.org.uk/.
Founded in 1826, University College London (UCL) was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge,
the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law,
architecture and medicine. We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international
rankings and tables. UCL currently has 24,000 students from almost 140 countries, and more than 9,500 employees. Our
annual income is over £800.