Wine News

A hospital is giving two glasses of red wine a day to heart attack victims on its wards. Nurses are serving cardiac patients at the Great Western Hospital, in Swindon, a daily tipple in an attempt to reduce further heart problems.Research has shown that two glasses a day can cut the chances of suffering a heart attack by 50 % and a stroke by 20%.The Wiltshire hospital believes it is the first in Europe to really test the theory on patients. The wine is paid for by the hospital's own charity, not the NHS.

Heart surgeon Dr William McCrea said the idea had come from examining statistics on heart disease in France."They consume twice the amount of fat that we do, they smoke more and they don't do any more exercise, but their deaths from heart attacks are half ours," he said.

The move is a popular one with many patients who say they can feel it doing them good. But the hospital has stressed it will not be encouraging patients with previous alcohol problems to take part.