ONLY one in three hospitals in the North-East and North Yorkshire have met a tough national target which calls for heart attack victims to be given clot-busting drugs within an hour of calling for help.

Five of the region's 15 hospitals - in Sunderland, Gateshead, North Tyneside, Newcastle and South Tyneside - met or exceeded the national target of treating 68 per cent of heart attack patients with the drugs.

The rest lagged behind the national average of 64 per cent.

However, experts point out that across the region generally, the outlook for patients who have had suspected heart attacks is generally improving.

One of the star performers is The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, which is one of a handful of hospitals nationally which now gives heart attack patients angioplasty rather than clot-busting drugs.

Angioplasty involves passing a thin tube through the arterial system, inflating a tiny balloon to unblock furred up arteries and leaving behind a mini-splint known as a stent to keep the vessel open.

The audit carried out by the Royal College of Physicians showed an overall increase in people getting clot-busting drugs between 2005-6 and 2006-7.

Results from 15 regional hospitals show that the proportion of patients receiving such treatment went up at eight hospitals - Bishop Auckland General, Gateshead Queen Elizabeth, Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary, Scarborough, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Hartlepool and North Durham.

However, at four hospitals - Darlington Memorial, North Tees, North Tyneside and York District - the proportion receiving treatment within an hour went down.

The best performer was Sunderland Royal Hospital, which saw the proportion of patients treated within an hour rise from 85 per cent to 94 per cent.

The poorest performer was Scarborough District Hospital, which saw a rise in patients treated with clot-busting drugs from 21 per cent to 47 per cent.

As far as ambulance services were concerned, the Yorkshire service exceeded the 68 per cent clot-busting drug target by two per cent.

John Darley, operations director of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: "We are delighted to have beaten the target for the number of patients who received treatment within 60 minutes of calling for help during 2006-7.

"The figure of 70 per cent reflects the excellent work staff have put in over the past year and the training that has taken place.

"Where patients have suffered a heart attack it is essential to get them treatment as soon as possible, whether this is delivered by the ambulance service paramedics or by a specialist hospital within 60 minutes.

For the North-East service, 65 per cent of patients were treated within an hour.

However, the North-East service gave more patients clot-busters on their way to hospital (125) than their Yorkshire colleagues (50).

Professor Roger Boyle, the Government's national clinical director for heart services, said: "This report shows that patients with heart attacks are being treated in the NHS to a high level of excellence"

Prof Boyle said there had been "remarkable improvements" in recent years.