BUPA is making a new treatment to widen arteries available to its insured customers with coronary he...
BUPA is making a new treatment to widen arteries available to its insured customers with coronary heart disease.
The new treatment involves a drug-releasing stent, a tube that provides structural support after reopening blocked arteries. BUPA spends £2.6m on stents for over 1,500 members annually.
Stents are commonly fitted after an angioplasty operation, where inflating a balloon inside it has widened an artery. The stent prevents the arteries' sub- sequent collapse. However, there has been a tendency for tissue to grow in the stent, re-blocking the artery and requiring the treatment to be repeated in time. The new stent is coated with a growth-inhibiting drug, which is intended to reduce the need for re-treatment.
Robert Royce, head of development in BUPA's health- care policy department, pointed out that results from large- scale clinical trials have been impressive.
He said: 'Our aim is to ensure all BUPA members who can benefit from this procedure are able to do so. It is highly likely these drug-releasing stents will replace more traditional metal stents in the future. We see the importance of investing now to improve the prospects of BUPA cardiac patients from the outset.'
