High expenses, heart of the matter

Over 50 percent of heart attack cases in the state fails to receive essential care, said Dr Anand Kumar V, the organising secretary of Interventional Cardiologist Council of Kerala, quoting from the annual data for 2011 with the organisation.

“About 10 percent of the total patients take to primary angioplasty in the case of a heart attack. This reduces the chances of heart damage by about 95 percent. About 40 percent of patients take to Thrombolytic injection which reduces the chances of heart damage by 40-50 percent. In the rest of the cases the patients get no such treatment.  They seem to be either managing with drugs for a short term relief or get no treatment at all,” said Dr Anand Kumar.

One of the key reasons cited is lack of money. A point to be noted here is that no General Hospital in the state provides angioplasty facility. “Though there are 65 Cathlabs for performing angioplasty in the state, in the government sector the facility is available only at the medical colleges and the Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram,” he said. While the absence of money brings down the number of persons taking to primary angioplasty, the delay in transportation brings down the number of persons opting for  Thrombolytic injection. 

“Though it is much cheaper than primary  angioplasty, the Thrombolytic injection cannot be taken if the treatment is delayed by six  hours or more after the advent of the heart attack. So in the case of patients having to undergo long transportation or in the cases where the patient is not in a state to be transported Thrombolysis fails to be an option,” said the doctor.

Another factor that puts government hospitals down is the absence of quick care in emergencies like heart attacks.  But on the brighter side, the number of patients taking to primary angioplasty has increased by 40 percent though the major share of the cases are in the private sector. Moreover, even the most far-flung spots in the state has a Cathlab at a radius of 50 km, said the study.