Heart 2 Heart Appeal

Help us save lives with new heart attack centre

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the UK for both men and women. They need to be treated right away in order to ensure that the patient has the best chance of making a full recovery.

The recommended first line treatment for a heart attack is primary angioplasty, which can reduce mortality associated with a severe heart attack by half.

Frimley Park Hospital is building a £3.3 million heart attack centre for patients in Surrey, east Berkshire and north-east Hampshire. The centre will offer a 24-hour, seven days a week emergency primary angioplasty service - something that is desperately needed in the area.

While the hospital trust is paying to build the centre, the Heart 2 Heart Appeal has been launched to raise £1.5 million for the highly specialised, state-of-the-art equipment needed to treat heart attacks. One of the items required is a C-arm. This shows a magnified image of the patient's coronary arteries so that cardiologists can see where they are blocked and successfully treat them.

"I am very excited about the appeal and the benefits it will bring and we are hoping for a lot of local support."
Dr Peter Clarkson, Consultant Cardiologist

What is primary angioplasty?

Angioplasty involves inserting a tiny balloon into the blocked artery via a catheter fed from the groin or wrist. The balloon is then inflated to stretch the artery open. A tiny sleeve of wire mesh (or stent) surrounding the balloon stays in place, bracing open the artery walls and allowing blood to flow freely again after the balloon is removed. When this procedure is carried out as an emergency on a heart attack patient, it is called primary angioplasty.

What are the benefits?

Primary angioplasty offers a rapid and full recovery requiring no further treatment. Survival rates are greater than for the current standard treatment of giving drugs to clear blood clots.

Why does Frimley need it?

There is nowhere in the area offering a 24-hour emergency angioplasty service.

Treatment at Frimley

Frimley Park Hospital has an excellent team of cardiologists who have undertaken over 500 successful angioplasty procedures in the past year. Given the facilities, they will be able to provide a gold standard emergency service.

Download our leaflet about the Heart 2 Heart Appeal