Rapid access chest pain clinics

Media release

Calls for urgent rapid access chest pain clinics to be rolled out in Australia

Australian cardiologists are calling for a new way of assessing and treating potential heart attack patients after a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia showed more lives could be saved and under a new 'rapid access' heart clinic rather than a general cardiology clinic.

Results from the Australian first 'Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic (RACPC)' revealed:

• Death from heart related conditions reduced.
• Fewer unplanned emergency department visits.
• The median time to review reduce for follow-up appointments.
• A diagnosis received at the first clinical visit.

Professor Tom Marwick, Director of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute said rapid access chest pain clinics, common in the United Kingdom, could improve the management of patients with chest pain in Australia.

'Chest pain is frequently a reason for presentations to primary care physicians and hospital emergency departments', said Prof Marwick.

'In an Australian setting, specific benefits were reduced numbers of clinic attendances and invasive investigations, and lower rates of emergency department re‐presentations and adverse cardiovascular events.'

'Our study again documents the high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among people attending the RACPC, which may also offer opportunities for initiating preventive measures.'

The results were taken from 1914 patients at the trail RACPC clinic at the Royal Hobart Hospital in collaboration with the Baker Institute and University of Tasmania.

Prof Marwick said the RACPC model is focused specifically on new presentations with chest pain. 'Generally it makes most sense to locate these clinics in hospitals because of downstream testing and the occasional patient who really needs something done quickly', he said.

For further information or to organise interviews please contact:

Tracey Ellis
T: 03 8532 1514
M: 0433 781 972
E: tracey.ellis@baker.edu.au