COVID-19 pandemic and infarctions: another call to reorganise our healthcare systems

[...]consideration is further supported by the increased ‘door-to-balloon’ time described by Kwok and collaborators.2 The authors correctly point out that several factors may account for such delay, such as the necessity of a more extensive patient evaluation prior to angiogram and the time needed for the PCI staff to don personal protective equipment. Of interest, the authors found no significant differences in overall mortality and reduction in in-hospital MACE (Major Adverse Cardiovascular Event, that is unplanned re-PCI, reinfarction and death) among patients with STEMI admitted during the lockdown as compared with those referred prior to such measure. [...]the work by Kwok and collaborators, along with previous findings about this topic, highlighted that the emergency care network for patients suffering from acute cardiovascular illnesses has still several shortcomings, making it vulnerable in critical social and medical contexts. Increasing patient awareness of serious symptoms and inviting them to seek medical care in any case through dedicated campaigns, strengthening the territorial network with access points able to perform an ECG and to be in touch with hub centres, potentiating remote medical programmes with a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of the healthcare professionals involved, getting an ‘on call’ dedicated staff trained to scrub in with protective equipment in a reasonable time, and setting up dedicated rooms where patients can undergo an extensive evaluation for the infection at a later time, thus prioritising angiography, are among the cornerstones of an ‘emergency plan’ that should be conceived and be easily available should a second wave of infections occur.