LIFE-SAVING kerbside injections of heart drugs are about to begin in the region.

Rural areas of County Durham and Northumberland will be the first to see paramedics administering the drug within weeks.

It means patients will be treated with revolutionary clot-busting drugs on the spot instead of having to wait until arrival at hospital.

The action has been ordered by the Government to reduce the number of people who die as a result of heart attacks.

Once the scheme is in place it is expected to save many lives.

Thrombolytic drugs can dissolve dangerous blood clots and greatly increase the chance of a full recovery.

However, they can only work in the first few hours after an attack.

More remote parts of the region have been chosen by the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) because of the distance between outlying areas and city hospitals.

Once the technique has been tried out in rural areas, the plan is to give paramedics the go-ahead to use the drugs in cities.

During the past 18 months, all NEAS ambulances have been rebuilt to incorporate sophisticated heart monitors known as 12-lead defibrillators.

They are already being used by paramedics to radio data ahead, so hospital doctors can be ready with thrombolytic drugs.

Since they were introduced in the NEAS area last August, about 1,000 patients have been treated.

From next month, the monitors will be used by selected paramedics to give injections at the scene.

Colin Cessford, director of clinical standards at the NEAS, said the clot-busting drugs could not be injected until the sophisticated machines had established that the patient had suffered a heart attack.

"If you give it inappropriately, it is possible you could kill someone, so we have to be certain they have had a heart attack," said Mr Cessford.

Consignments of the thrombolytic drugs have arrived and will soon be issued to ambulance paramedics in rural stations including Stanley, Barnard Castle and Consett.

A spokeswoman for the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service said it was expected that injections at the scene of heart attacks would be operational throughout its area within the next 12 months.