A lack of trained specialist nurses and cash for expensive drugs could hamper plans to improve treatment for heart attack victims.

Medics at Airedale Hospital have drawn up plans to ensure people who have suffered a heart attack receive vital drugs as quickly as possible. But a lack of specially trained nurses and insufficient funding for expensive drugs which could be used by paramedics could make it difficult to implement.

Health bosses drew up the action plan after the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) said patients in Airedale were waiting far too long for thrombolytic drugs which reduce blood clotting.

In its report published earlier this year the CHI said that Airedale was not achieving the national standard for heart attack patients receiving the drug within 30 minutes of arrival at hospital, with some waiting hours for the drug.

Medical director Dr Paul Godwin said: "The problem for us in the hospital is that thrombolytics are given by junior doctors who are fairly busy because their time is taken up with other emergencies.

"The only way forward is to get a specialist group of nursing staff who could be re-deployed to meet that target.

"There is a need for thrombolytic nurses in Airedale and the current situation reflects the poor staffing levels in Airedale.

"It is important that the drugs are delivered as soon as possible and we want them to delivered by ambulance staff, and they have done some work towards that."

He added that if thrombolytics were given off site by ambulance men they would require more expensive drugs, and that was the bit that was not funded.

"This is our only weak link because we have good survival figures after heart attacks and every other aspect of care in cardiology is exceptionally good," he said.

Dr Godwin added that due to the large rural area served by Airedale and the long ambulance journey some have to make to hospital, it was important that WYMAS staff received the training so they could administer the treatment as soon as possible.

He was also critical of the Government's decision to calculate the national standard from the time a patient arrived at the hospital, rather than from when the person first suffered the heart attack.

"It's the time the patient receives the thrombolytic that is important and it is an issue that the Government has side stepped by introducing a new benchmark," he said.