The research, carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), looked at the records of more than 500,000 NHS patients in the UK over 13 years. It highlights the stark “postcode lottery” of how people living in certain parts of the country have access to lower-quality health care. The results found that while cardiologists treating patients in London and the south-east had the best survival rates among heart attack patients, patients treated in the north-east and east of England had the worst. Among 100 otherwise identical patients, another six patients living in the north-east and east of England would have survived for at least a year if they had been treated by a similar doctor in London. Furthermore, if the effectiveness of heart attack doctors in these areas of the country were as effective as cardiologists in London, an extra 80 people a year in each area would survive a heart attack. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The survey also revealed a gap between rural and urban areas of England, with patients living in the former typically receiving treatment from less effective doctors compared to those in more urban areas. George Stoye, deputy director at the IFS and author of the study, said cardiologists of equal skill were not consistently located in different parts of the country, meaning otherwise identical patients had different survival outcomes. Stoye said: “A core tenet of the NHS is to provide equal access to care for people with equal needs. However, this research shows that patients living in different parts of the country do not have access to the same quality of care. This means that patients living in some areas – particularly the North East and East of England – receive, on average, worse care than patients living in other areas. However, even doctors working in the same hospital have very different results.” He added: “Patients have little choice about who treats them in an emergency situation and the quality of care they receive will vary depending on when and where they seek care. Recruiting and training physicians takes time, but the research shows that it is important for policymakers to invest in careful quality monitoring, ensure that best practices are widely disseminated, and take other steps to ensure equal access to high-quality care in the whole country. Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Where heart attack patients live should not determine the quality of treatment and care they receive. “But unfortunately this analysis shows that people with heart disease vary widely depending on which part of the country they live in. We know this is due to a number of factors, including travel time to hospital in rural areas, the equipment available within a hospital and the number of doctors and nurses in a particular area. “At a time when demand on the NHS has never been greater, we urgently need a fully funded cardiovascular care strategy. The government needs to ensure there are enough heart doctors and nurses who have the tools they need to give patients the best care, wherever they are.” The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
