CARDIAC patients could be receiving the wrong type of treatment in the town, new figures have revealed.
Heart rhythm abnormality atrial fibrillation affects more than one million people in the UK and patients have a five times greater risk of having a stroke.
New figures taken from anonymous GP data show out of 29.574 patients with AF in the Bath, Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire area, an estimated 7,389 may be receiving no treatment or only aspirin.
This is no longer advised by health watchdog National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) whose 2014 CG180 guideline recommended blood-thinning treatment for AF related stroke prevention.
A Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group spokesman said the CCG prescribed medication to nearly half of AF patients.
“All GP practices within Swindon and Shrivenham hold a register of patients with atrial fibrillation and regularly review patients to identify those who are not anticoagulated. 45.2 per cent of patients in Swindon and Shrivenham who had suffered a stroke and had a history of atrial fibrillation were prescribed anticoagulation medication prior to their stroke. This number is higher than the England average of 44.4 per cent.
“In Swindon and Shrivenham, those patients who are diagnosed are referred to the anticoagulation clinic at the Great Western Hospital for review and the decision about whether to initiate an anticoagulant is made after an informed discussion about the risks and the benefits, between the patient and the clinician.”
However Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said they had stopped prescribing aspirin for AF patients in 2010, four years before advice from health watchdog NICE.
This was on advice from the European Society of Cardiology.
Dr Paul Foley, consultant cardiologist, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The risk of having a stroke is greater in patients with certain abnormal heart rhythms. Our teams routinely monitor and assess these patients and prescribe the necessary anticoagulant medicine, which helps to thin a patient’s blood, to anyone found to be at risk. Preventing stroke is a key factor of 500 Lives, the Trust’s campaign to save an extra 500 lives between 2015 and 2020.”
The national data showed even in 2016 15.7 (140,402) per cent of AF patients reviewed were not receiving any preventative treatment and 13.5 per cent (120,905) were only receiving aspirin for stroke prevention
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