AN increased number of heart attack patients are receiving clot-busting drugs soon after arriving at North-East hospitals, figures revealed yesterday.

A survey of North-East hospitals showed that in the first three months of this year, virtually all centres were giving patients the drugs shortly upon arriving at hospital.

The thrombolytic drugs save lives and have helped lead to a big drop in deaths from heart disease in recent years.

The latest figures showed that at the start of the year, 81 per cent of patients were given the drugs within 30 minutes of arriving in hospital - this is the so-called door-to-needle goal.

This compared with 76 per cent hitting the target for the same period last year.

The figures from the Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project (Minap), carried out by the Royal College of Physicians, showed that 77.3 per cent of hospitals in England were achieving the door-to-needle goal - up from 47.8 per cent the previous year.

The Government also set a target of 48 per cent of patients been given the drug within an hour of the first call for help to the GP, NHS Direct or ambulance service.

The figures showed that nationally 49 per cent were getting treatment within 60 minutes of their first call.

Almost all English hospitals were shown to be meeting goals for prescribing drugs to reduce the risk of another heart attack - aspirin (97 per cent), beta blockers (89 per cent) and statins (93 per cent).

Before 2000, few hospitals were hitting the target for giving patients the clot-busting drugs.

In the first six months of 2001, less than half of patients were receiving treatment within 30 minutes.

The Government's Heart Tsar, Dr Roger Boyle, said in the past few years the treatment of heart attack patients had been revolutionised.

In the region, Darlington Memorial, Bishop Auckland General, University Hospital of North Durham, North Tees General, in Stockton, South Tyneside, Sunderland, The Friarage, in Northallerton, and Queen Elizabeth, in Gateshead hit clot-busting targets.

The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, the University Hospital of Hartlepool and hospitals in Harrogate, Scarborough and York missed the 60-minute target by more than 25 per cent.

The Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, and the University Hospital of Hartlepool came within 25 per cent of the 30-minute target.