The ministry of health has approved a speedy protocol to treat people with heart attacks or blood clots to be used in all its hospitals on a seven day, 24 hour basis, said a highly-placed official at the ministry on Thursday.
Undersecretary of the ministry Dr. Khalid Al-Sahlawi said at a press conference today held on the occasion of adopting the new protocol that the latter would cut the time paramedics and later the hospital staff need to treat a patient with an emergency heart condition.
In fact he said the time would be cut to under half an hour, noting that the new protocol would eventually lead to cutting down the time needed to keep a patient in bed, from eight to three days, which saves costs and eases the pressure on the ministry's budget.
He added that the new approach to dealing with emergency heart patients could reduce heart failure fatalities by 3 or 4 percent.
A number of ministry professionals like Dr. Mustafa Redha of Addan Hospital, Dr. Musa Akbar, a heart specialist, Dr. Mohammad Al-Jarallah, a heart specialist as well, and Dr. Mohammad Zubaid of Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital, all applauded the validity of setting in motion this new protocol which is bound to save lives of patients with acute heart conditions.