Have A Heart for Our Bay! - Sign The Letter Today
It’s the threat to Torbay and South Devon’s emergency health services which has seen local cardiologists and surgeons speak out about the risks to heart attack patients from it.
The NHS Devon Integrated Care Board is proposing a “test and learn” process on “consolidating” pPCI services. This means instead of taking heart attack patients from Torbay and South Devon to Torbay Hospital for PPCI treatment (known as angioplasty or coronary angioplasty), their ambulance would instead have to take them all the way to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Exeter).
Rather than gather another petition the “Have a Heart for Our Bay” campaign aims to get as many individual letters as possible sent to Kevin Orford, the Chair of NHS Devon Integrated Care Board which will decide on the proposed changes at their Board Meeting in July. The aim is to fill his post bag with messages demanding these damaging changes are dropped.
Fill your details in below and the “Have a Heart for Our Bay” letter will be sent in your name to Mr Orford. If you would like to add a personal comment or experience you can use the letter below as a template you can copy and paste, then either send it yourself to NHS Devon (Address details here) or email the text to [email protected] and I will ensure your message is delivered:
Dear Mr Orford,
Have a Heart for Our Bay
I am deeply concerned to hear of proposals for what is described as a “test and learn” process on “consolidating” PPCI services.
This means instead of taking heart attack patients from Torbay and South Devon to Torbay Hospital for prompt PPCI treatment, an ambulance would instead take them to the RD&E (Exeter). As your own Board papers confirmed, this proposal would result in an extra 28 minutes of travel for patients from the Torbay and South Devon area, increasing the average journey time from 15 to 43 minutes.
This extra delay in receiving vital emergency treatment is unacceptable and could not only cost lives, but see patients suffer additional damage to their heart whilst in transport. These changes are opposed not just by local cardiologists and surgeons, but by the whole community across Torbay and South Devon, including me.
Those whose lives have been saved by the cardiac teams at Torbay Hospital are speaking out against this proposed trial. I urge you to Have a Heart for Our Bay and not just “update” this proposal at your meeting in July but abandon it.
Yours sincerely