Care improves for stroke patients

CARE is being improved for more than 600 stroke patients each year at Warrington Hospital – thanks to rapid thrombolysis and early discharge services.
This follows the introduction of the National Stroke Strategy in December 2007. The hospital is now planning to introduce telemedicine – using phone lines and the internet to transmit information – to speed up treatment.
Dr Ola Otaiku, stroke lead at the hospital said: “We have had some major improvements, though there are still a lot of challenges before we can describe our service as a beacon of excellence.
“We have made significant improvement on rapid assessment of stroke patients directly from A&E. This has resulted in better outcomes for our patients.
“Our thrombolysis service, though it still has limited hours, has allowed us to reduce our length of stay dramatically with reduced morbidity and mortality to below the national average.
“Eighty one per cent of our patients can get their scans within 24 hours compared to the national average of 59%.
“We intend to extend the hours of thrombolysis with the use of telemedicine in due course. We are now able to see and investigate ‘high risk’ transient ischaemic attack (TIA) within 24 hours and all others are seen within a week.
“A lot of work still needs to be done, to ensure we can meet the standard of direct admission within four hours.”
Jane Guy, of Warrington’s branch of the Stroke Association said: “We are pleased to see the improvements to stroke services in the last five years that have seen more people surviving a stroke and fewer people left to cope with the effects of severe disabilities.
“The stroke journey carries on long after people leave hospital and the commitment to providing long term support services is vital to ensure that stroke survivors can lead as full and independent lives as possible.”