Dangers of angioplasty when there is no surgical backup.

I agree with you!
I forgot to say that also I found out that at this clinic they did have a "problem." I guess the angiogram they did went wrong, they had to call 911 and get the patient off via ambulance. I can see them doing something next to a hospital, or in a separate rented unit, but this place was at least a mile from the nearest hospital!

When my DH had an MI earlier this year, the local public hospital he was transported to offered for him to be transferred to a private hosital to have the angiogram because he's covered for private medical/hospital. This local public hospital does not have a cath lab. The major city hospital is about 20 minutes drive away.
I told them NO way was he having it done in ANY hospital which did not have surgical back-up! The attending cardiac registrar looked at me, saw that I understood a LOT more than he knew I did, and was resolute, then he was in full agreement with me! *sigh*
DH was transferred into the major city hospital and had two stents successfully inserted. He's going great guns now. No complications. No setbacks.

In my long nursing career I cannot begin to tell you how often I tried to get patients to actually READ the consent forms, yet still they just signed away no questions asked! Despite my attempts at educating and explaining! *sigh*

I do believe that sometimes the explanations are not eloquent enough.

Having had a pt who tamponaded after a routine heart cath with attempted PTCA (wire puncture), I'd say its medically reckless, not to mention probably negligient, to be doing PTCA without surgery backup. The only way my pt survived was immediate (less than 10 minutes) access to open heart surgery.

A RT coworker of mine had a cath and ended up with a punctured artery. Ended up with a bypass. Would have been dead if she was in one of those facilities that didn't have CV OR backup. I personally will not have a heart cath in a facility that did not have OR backup.

I would never ever have a heart cath or an angioplasty in a hospital that did not have immediate access to a cardiovascular surgeon.