The Acute Coronary Attack

It was known that two-thirds of premature deaths occurred within one hour of the onset of symptoms, so that the majority of patiens died ouside hospital. For those lucky enough to reach hospital alive intensive care units were already developed or being developed. In Belfast in 1965 hospital admission was in a large proportion of patients delayed for more than twelve hours and the median delay was more than eight hours. In other cities it was at least equally bad and often worse.