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National service framework for coronary heart disease: audit of English hospitals

BMJ 2002; 324 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.324.7339.709 (Published 23 March 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;324:709
  1. Michelle Rhodes, senior lecturer (m.rhodes@ucsm.ac.uk)a,
  2. Christopher Newman, senior lecturer cardiologyb,
  3. Susan Read, reader in nursing researchc
  1. a Department of Nursing Studies, St Martins College, Carlisle CA1 2HH
  2. b Clinical Sciences Centre, University of Sheffield, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield S5 7AU
  3. c School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2HL
  1. Correspondence to: M Rhodes
  • Accepted 1 November 2001

The national service framework for coronary heart disease gives priority to reducing delays in the delivery of thrombolysis for acute myocardial infarction, aiming to achieve a “call to needle time” (from the initial call for help to treatment) of 60 minutes and a “door to needle time” (from arrival at the hospital to treatment) of 20 minutes or less by April 2003.1 We audited the delivery of thrombolysis in all acute hospitals in England.

Methods and results

We conducted a postal survey from July to December 2000 of all 201 acute hospitals in England that routinely admit patients with acute myocardial infarction. We identified hospitals from Binley's Directory of NHS Management and approached divisional or directorate managers by telephone.2 We then sent questionnaires to the appropriate …

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