Attitudes of general practitioners to prehospital thrombolysis

The aim of the study was to investigate attitudes of rural Irish General Practitioners (GPs) to prehospital thrombolysis. Postal questionnaires were sent to all General Medical Service (GMS) GPs, in the former Western and North Western Health Board regions of Ireland, whose practices were 20km or greater from the nearest acute hospital with a coronary care unit. The response rate was 61% (117/191). 95% were convinced of the benefits of thrombolytic treatment in acute myocardial infarction. 92% believed that there were additional benefits of thrombolysing in the community at the earliest opportunity. 89% were not willing to use prehospital thrombolysis without further training.The study demonstrated that the majority of rural Irish GPs are convinced of the benefits of prehospital thrombolysis and are willing to administer it. The need for further training on prehospital thrombolysis is a key issue that must be addressed before rural Irish GPs are willing to provide more widespread prehospital thrombolysis.