HEART attack patients who need life-saving care will soon be able to be treated at Worcestershire Royal Hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Patients will no longer have to travel to a heart attack centre in Birmingham, Coventry or Wolverhampton out of hours.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust bosses have approved plans to start a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week primary percutaneous coronary intervention service from September. This follows the introduction of a Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm service in January last year.

It is estimated that the development of a 24/7 service will provide potentially life-saving treatment to an additional 200-250 patients a year.

Primary angioplasty is a procedure used to open the narrowed or blocked coronary arteries of the heart immediately after the most serious type of heart attack is diagnosed.

The process involves a catheter being inserted directly into an artery in the leg and a balloon inflated in the blocked artery. The balloon expands the artery and a stent is inserted.

The procedure is regarded as being the best intervention that produces the most effective results and outcomes for heart attack patients.