York District Hospital consultant Dr Roger Boyle is the Government's new 'Heart Tsar'. He talked to Evening Press reporter DAVID WILES about the challenges that lie ahead

The scale of the task facing York consultant Dr Roger Boyle in his new role as Heart Tsar is immense; to save the lives of 200,000 people over the next ten years.

He has the financial backing of the Department of Health and the personal support of the Health Secretary, but will need to change attitudes to diet and smoking and attract more specialist heart doctors to the profession.

Dr Boyle's aim is to reduce the number of people who contract heart disease, while putting in place a more efficient and effective system to treat those who still fall prey to it. He will strive to reduce waiting lists, to get more funding for health professionals to tackle heart disease, to train more cardiologists in district hospitals, and to promote a healthy lifestyle by encouraging people to stop smoking.

He will try to reduce ambulance response times so patients get to hospital more quickly and are given clot-busting drugs sooner, so they are more effective.

A target of 3,000 extra operations in the next year - an increase of ten per cent - has been set, so more cardiologists and surgeons will need to be taken on to carry them out.

Wide-ranging changes will need to be brought in to tackle these challenges. Chest pain clinics will be set up to provide immediate access for assessment, so patients don't have to wait weeks or even months to see a specialist. "We will concentrate more on improving capacity and increasing the number of surgical interventions," says Dr Boyle.

"At the moment, compared with European standards, we are lagging way behind.

We perform fewer interventions than any of the main developed European countries." Death rates from coronary heart disease here are lower only than those in Finland, and are roughly double those of France.

Dr Boyle says: "It's not a position we relish and we want to change all that. "The death rate here is falling already, but we want to bring it down quicker and also reduce the morbidity and ill health that goes with it." There will be an investigation into the waiting lists that are plaguing those in need of treatment to identify the best forms of treatment.

"We want to abolish waiting lists," says Dr Boyle. "If someone has a pain in their chest they should be seen in a day or two, and not have to wait months." Dr Boyle, 52, who lives in Main Street, Copmanthorpe, has worked for York Health Services NHS Trust for 17 years.

Qualifying as a cardiologist in 1972, he has lectured at Leeds University and is in charge of training all cardiology registrars in the country on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians. Dr Boyle was a key figure in the success of the Evening Press's 1988 Lifesaver Appeal, to raise cash for vital heart monitoring equipment at York District Hospital. The desperate lack of resources to treat heart patients was revealed by the tragic death last year of Ian Weir, deputy chief photographer on the Evening Press's sister paper the Northern Echo.

The 38-year-old father-of-two died after waiting seven months for a triple heart bypass operation. He was one of an estimated 500 heart patients who die on waiting lists every year.

Central to the role of the National Director for Heart Disease - Dr Boyle's official title - is the implementation of the new National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease. Drawn up by Dr Boyle among others, he says it is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.

"We believe it will prove to be a model of excellence to be emulated elsewhere," he says.

The Americans want to know all about it, and Dr Boyle has been invited to speak to the American Heart Association in November. But closer to home, and despite his national role, his efforts could have a positive effect on treatment here in York, where rates of heart disease are higher than the national average.

"One of the problems in the delivery of services to patients is the imbalance between the services available and the number of patients in any area," says Dr Boyle. "There is still a north/south divide, with higher levels of heart disease in the north but more surgeons and cardiologists in the south.

"We will be looking to distribute consultants and services to where the disease is most common, to obtain fairness for all people suffering from the disease regardless of their age or where they live.

" The creation of the post is part of a wide package of measures to tackle heart disease in the nation. Doctors will be required to put all patients with suspected or proven heart disease on a register and provide a minimum level of treatment for them. The register is expected to save up to 6,000 lives a year, and those in it will be guaranteed regular check-ups and the best preventative medicine.

A network of 700 defibrillators - used to shock the heart back into action - will be installed in public places, such as railway stations, shopping centres and leisure centres.

PICTURE: Dr Roger Boyle, Britian's 'Heart Tsar'