Heart attack patients who get a swift follow-up operation halve their chances of dying in the next year, say researchers.

The findings worry patients' groups, who say far too many UK people are still waiting far too long for procedures which could save their lives.

Their illness is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over them - they can't do anything

Eve Knight, British Cardiac Patients' Association

The latest study, published in the Lancet, was carried out by researchers at the University Hospital of Linkoping in Sweden.

More than 20,000 patients who had suffered a heart attack were studied.

Some were given conventional treatments such as drugs, while others were quickly given an operation such as a heart bypass, or an angioplasty to widen clogged and narrowed arteries, with perhaps the insertion of a stent tube to keep them open.

Halved death rate

In the conventionally-treated groups, one in 20 died within a year.

However, in the group operated-on swiftly, one in 40 died.

The reports authors recommended that quick operations should be the order of the day for many more patients.

Dr Ulf Stenestrand said: "Even when statistical compensation has been taken into account, there still remains a 50% reduction in the risk of dying within one year after a heart attack in early revascularisation is performed."

The government is currently trying to reduce waiting times for heart surgery - and has said that in some areas, people waiting more than six months will have the right to surgery at a private hospital, or even abroad.

Long waits

Eve Knight, from the British Cardiac Patients' Association, told BBC News Online: "Some patients who ring us have been waiting for months for surgery.

"Their illness is like a Sword of Damocles hanging over them - they can't do anything.

"It varies depending on where you live in the country, some places are obviously better than others.

"But many people have been told that waiting lists are coming down, but are still waiting for long periods."