New 24/7 service for stroke patients

STROKE patients at Warrington are to benefit from a new 24-hours-a-day, seven days-a-week thrombolysis service.
The service will be provided in conjunction with Whiston Hospital – the Merseyside hospital controversially linked with Warrington during a House of Commons debate.
From next month, tt will be offered from 8am to 8pm at Warrington, Monday-to-Sunday and after 8pm will switch to Whiston Hospital, at Prescot.
Currently, out-of-hours patients are sent to Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool.
Thrombolysis involves giving patients drugs to break up blood clots which have travelled to the brain and are stopping blood from flowing freely. If the blood clot can be broken up within the first few hours, then brain damage and resulting disability can be significantly reduced.
The process of making a decision to offer thrombolysis once the patient is at hospital is a complex one. It involves an urgent brain scan and assessment by a senior doctor specialising in stroke medicine. The thrombolysis treatment is only appropriate for a small number of stroke patients and needs to be administered quickly, hence the importance of developing the service nearer so that patients do not have to travel to Liverpool.
Specialist Stroke Nurse Tina Dooley welcomes the change.
She said: “Specialist stroke nurses offer an experienced assessment to patients who arrive in hospital with a confirmed or suspected stroke, and at times we are the first person from the stroke team that a patient will see. When someone suffers a stroke, the most critical thing is to get speedy diagnosis and treatment. The longer treatment is delayed, the more damage a stroke can do to your brain.
“Extending to a 12 hour service, seven days a week at Warrington Hospital and then with the out of hours being transferred to Whiston Hospital will bring real benefits to our patients.”