New guidance issued for treatment and care of stroke patients
Approximately 150,000 people in the UK suffer a stroke and 67,000 people die as a result every year.
Experts say failings in stroke care are leaving thousands dead or unnecessarily disabled each year. According to the Stroke Association, too few patients are treated in specialist stroke units or given the correct drugs. However the National Institute for Clinical Excellence and Royal College of physicians hope new guidelines for England and Wales will help improve stroke care.
Specialists say that the number of people dying or having permanent disability could be reduced if the NHS provided the right care at the right time. Latest figures show that less than two-thirds of patients are treated in a specialist stroke unit and many more stroke patients could receive ‘clot busting’ drugs shortly after their stoke to reduce the possibility of long term damage.
According to the Royal College of Physicians, approximately 4,500 patients a year were suffering a disability which could have been avoided because these drugs were not administered. They also estimate that thousands of stroke victims die because of substandard medical care.
New comprehensive guidance about the care of stroke has been issued. It recommends:
- Patients with suspected stroke should go straight to the nearest stroke unit rather than a non-specialist hospital. (Figures in England in 2006 show that only one in five patients is handled this way).
- People who suffer a ‘transient ischaemic attack’ (TIA) or ‘mini-stroke’ are seen urgently by a specialist.
Dr Tony Rudd, from the Royal College of Physicians said that implementing the guidelines would require a ‘radical restructuring of health services’.
Joe Korner, from the Stroke Association, said that while there had been improvements, there was still a long way to go. “Too often in the past, vital stroke guidelines have been put on a shelf and ignored, causing unnecessary deaths, disability and loss of independence for many thousands of people.”
In Scotland, a similar stroke strategy has been in place for much longer and the Stoke Association have said that stroke services in Scotland were generally of a better standard than elsewhere in the UK.
Professor Roger Boyle, the National Clinical Director for Heart Disease and Stroke, said "The latest figures also show that the number of patients spending any time on a stroke unit has increased from 36% in 2001 to 62% in 2006. The challenge now is to make sure that people who have a stroke are spending the majority of their time on a specialist stroke unit."
Expert medical negligence lawyer Susan Brown from Reading-based law firm Boyes Turner says “The statistics for stroke victims make very depressing reading. It is shocking to learn that thousands are suffering permanent disability or death as a result of failings in the way that care is delivered to these patients. Let's hope that the new guidelines really will improve outcomes for these patients.”
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