Dr Billal Patel
NINE staff from Blackpool’s Lancashire Cardiac Centre have got together to produce a global appeal to patients who may be suffering from a heart attack.
The unit is reporting about a third reduction in the number of patients attending for heart attacks (myocardial infarction) and nationally there has been a 50 per cent reduction in the number of patients going through A&E with cardiac complaints.
Now, led by consultant cardiologist, Dr Billal Patel, the nine members of staff have got together to share a ‘Call 999’ message in 11 different languages to try to reach out to as many people as possible who may be suffering the symptoms of a heart attack.
“This is a global message from a global team for a global problem,” Dr Billal said. “We fear patients may be delaying coming in to hospital for fear of contracting Coronavirus, not wanting overburden the system or putting symptoms down to COVID-19.
“The patients we are seeing now are in a worse condition because of delays and we want to advise patients to call 999 if they get symptoms which do not go away within 10 minutes,” he added.
The 11 videos are all available on our website to watch the English version click here
The other versions, which include: Urdu, Arabic, Pushto, Bengali, German, Polish, Cantonese, French, Greek and Punjabi are available on our website here.