For a condition in which every minute counts, patients entering Queen Alexandra Hospital are having to wait an average of 33 minutes longer for modern life-saving treatment than those being treated at other hospitals.

The procedure, called primary angioplasty, involves inserting a catheter to widen and unblock the heart's clogged arteries.

A report from the Royal College of Physicians shows other hospitals offering the procedure take an average 56 minutes to begin treatment after arrival.

But at QA it takes an average of 89 minutes to begin the same treatment, because the service cannot be provided around the clock, and 24-hour coverage could still be several years away.

Report co-author Dr Clive Weston said: 'There is room for improvement in the provision of this procedure in Portsmouth.'

Dr Weston added: 'Queen Alexandra has an excellent record in providing conventional treatment for heart patients – but it needs to ensure that this excellence of treatment is transferred to the more modern methods that are now available.'

Despite the poor performance for angioplasty at QA almost 90 per cent of patients needing vital clot-busting drugs to clear arteries receive them within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital, boosting their survival chances.

Health experts say primary angioplasty works in about 95 per cent of cases if performed quickly, while the traditional drug treatment is only effective in about 80 per cent of cases.

Dr Hugh Griffiths, a consultant cardiologist at QA, said: 'We are seeing improvements in our primary angioplasty response times, but we're not quite there yet.

'The service has only been running for 18 months.'

Because of a shortage of qualified specialists, the primary angioplasty procedure is currently only available at the hospital during conventional nine-to-five office hours.

There is a national shortage of specialists in the field but the unit at QA is due to expand, moving to new premises in 2009.

Dr Griffiths said: 'It will likely take two to three years before we are able to offer this procedure 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But we are proud to be one of the small number of hospitals nationally that offer this treatment.'

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