THE number of people dying from coronary heart disease in the North-East has dropped dramatically, a study has revealed.

Experts from the North-East Public Health Observatory (NEPHO) have also found that health inequalities between the region’s deprived and affluent communities are also narrowing.

Their findings are published in a report showing a big increase in the number of people having “revascularisations” – bypass surgery and other procedures to prevent the blockage of coronary arteries that could lead to heart attacks and angina.

Last night, Darlington MP Alan Milburn, who ordered a huge drive to expand heart surgery in England when he was Health Secretary in 2000, said: “This is a great North- East NHS success story. There has been huge progress in the years since I launched the Government’s plans to reduce deaths from heart disease.”

Mr Milburn said The Northern Echo’s A Chance To Live campaign, launched in 1999 after photographer Ian Weir died while waiting for a heart bypass operation “helped make it a national priority for the NHS”.

Mr Weir, a father-of-two, died on June 1, 1999, seven months after suffering a heart attack and the day before he was due to see a surgeon to fix a date for a triple bypass heart operation.

At the time The Northern Echo discovered that while patients in countries such as Holland received bypass heart surgery within three months or less, patients in England were having to wait for 18 months.

The expansion ordered by Mr Milburn led to a huge increase in bypass operations and angioplasties at the region’s two main heart centres – The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, and The Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle The North-East has previously had a poor record for coronary heart diseases, or CHD, with the condition linked to smoking, lack of exercise, obesity and high blood cholesterol.

However, the study by Stocktonbased NEPHO shows that the number of premature deaths related to CHD dropped nine per cent between 1997 and 2006.

In 1997, CHD accounted for 25 per cent of all deaths in the North- East, with 3,230 out of 12,919 people to die doing so because of the condition.

But in 2006, that figure fell to 16 per cent, with CHD responsible for the deaths of 1,621 out of 9,976 people.

Last night Dr Jim Hall, a senior cardiologist at The James Cook Hospital, said: “I remember when we started here in 1993, saying that the reason why the cardiothoracic unit is being opened is to lower the death rate from coronary heart disease in the region.

“People were sceptical we would have any influence. It is very gratifying to see we are catching up with the rest of the country.”