The number of Scots surviving heart attacks and strokes has increased, figures showed today.

The number of Scots surviving heart attacks and strokes has increased, figures showed today.

Official statistics were published on the survival rates for both conditions.

And they showed that at the end of 2006, 85.8% of patients taken to hospital for emergency treatment after a heart attack were still alive after 30 days.

That compares with 81.2% of such patients in 1998.

And similarly the number of people surviving after a stroke has risen.

In 1998, 76.6% of patients were alive 30 days after being admitted to hospital for emergency treatment following a stroke.

That rose to 81% by 2005, but then dropped slightly to 80.6% by the end of December 2006.

The figures also showed that there were fewer deaths after non-emergency operations.

The percentage of deaths within a 30-day period after such surgeries fell from 0.37% in December 1998 to 0.27% at the end of 2006.

And the number of people who had to be readmitted to hospital for emergency treatment following surgery has remained fairly constant over the last nine years, with about 2.5% of patients readmitted within seven days and 5.3% back in hospital within 28 days.

However there has been an increase in the number of people who have required further hospital care after medical treatment.

Emergency readmissions within seven days increased from 4% in 1998 to 4.8% in 2006. And the proportion of people back in hospital after 28 days rose from 9.8% to 11.2% over the same period.