22 April 2019

Royal Papworth Hospital and air ambulance charity Magpas came together on Saturday 13 April to trial the emergency heart attack pathway at our new hospital. 

Magpas Air Ambulance landed at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus with an intubated and ventilated mannequin patient on board, accompanied by a concerned “relative”. 

The “patient” was then transferred into one of Royal Papworth’s new cath labs in a land ambulance via the dedicated route for emergency admissions.

The patient had been suffering with chest pain and required treatment under our Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PPCI) pathway, a procedure used to treat people with blocked arteries of the heart causing a heart attack or myocardial infarction.

Reflecting on the day, Dr Will Davies, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Royal Papworth, said: “Last Saturday saw a highly-successful scenario training day for the cardiology staff working in the cath labs. 

“This joint exercise with Magpas Air Ambulance and their enhanced medical team enabled us to test every permutation and combination of events to make sure we’re ready for our first emergency patients on Wednesday 1 May.

“Our patients can rest assured we’re fully ready to go live and the state-of-the-art facilities at the new Royal Papworth Hospital will ensure we maintain the best clinical outcomes possible for all patients following a heart attack.”

Magpas Air Ambulance Medical Director, Simon Lewis, explained: “This training exercise with our Magpas enhanced doctor and paramedic team, our new simulated mannequin patient, ‘Harry’, and the Royal Papworth Hospital team was a great success. The hospital facilities are fantastic and made the transfer from the helipad through to the PPCI cath labs, very easy.

“This revolutionises the care given to patients. It was a privilege for our medical team to join the hospital at their new site.”