HAVE a heart and stop this madness now, before time runs out.

HAVE a heart and stop this madness now, before time runs out.

That is the call today from The Evening Star over the nonsensical plans to force emergency heart attack patients to endure a 60-mile dash for life before they are treated - with their chances of survival decreasing with every minute.

The proposals, dreamed up by health bureaucrats in the distant Strategic Health Authority and the little-known Specialised Commissioning Group, have caused outrage among patients and politicians.

It means from June 1 people in Suffolk will no longer be given clot-busting drugs in ambulances and taken to Ipswich Hospital's emergency department, but instead whisked to specialist centres in Norwich, Papworth or Cambridgeshire.

There was no consultation into the highly controversial plans, no chance for patients to makes their views heard or health bosses to calmly explain their rationale.

And today it emerged that even health bosses at NHS Suffolk did not fully understand the impact of the changes - less than a month before they were due to come into force.

Time is running out to stop the plans, but today the Star pledges to continue to campaign for a full consultation, so the views of people in Ipswich can finally be heard.

- For more on this story see tonight's Evening Star or check later web editions for updates.