‘Copy hospital and save 600 people’

3:28am Thursday 15th May 2008

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Six hundred lives could be saved each year if every hospital in the Yorkshire and Humber region provided the same gold standard of stroke care as Airedale General Hospital, health chiefs have claimed.

The Steeton hospital's service for stroke patients has been cited as the best example of life-saving practice in the Yorkshire region.

Since April the hospital has been following standards for stroke care set out by the National Stroke Sentinel audit, which says appropriate patients who have suffered a stroke should receive a brain scan and the clot-busting thrombolysis drug within three hours.

And in a report Healthy Ambitions published yesterday by the strategic health authority, NHS Yorkshire and Humber called all hospitals to follow the same standard to prevent 600 premature deaths in the region each year. Stroke is a loss of brain function due to disturbance in blood vessels supplying the brain. It can be caused by a lack of blood supply caused by the formation of a clot and it is these stroke patients who may benefit from the drug - about four to nine per cent of all stroke patients.

Since Airedale introduced the new care pathway in April, it has treated 65 patients with strokes and it expects one patient a month could be suitable for the new treatment.

The Trust has worked closely with Yorkshire Ambulance Service to make sure stroke patients are rushed to hospital quickly as the drug must be administered with three hours of the stroke to limit any damage. The drug breaks down the clot and allows blood to flow.

Paramedics are using a test - called a face, arm, speech test - and if a patient has abnormality in any of these it is treated as a medical emergency and the hospital is alerted a stroke patient is on the way.

A consultant is called to A&E to meet the patient and assess if they are suitable for thrombolysis. If so they are taken for a CT scan of their brain and if there is no bleeding the drug can be given.

Dr Andrew Catto, consultant in stroke medicine at Airedale NHS Trust, who was involved in the production of the Healthy Ambitions report, said early recognition of stroke symptoms was vital to the success of the treatment.

"It requires the patient, their carer or relative to appreciate the possibility they might be suffering a stroke and if they are to treat it as a medical emergency and call for an ambulance," he said. "The drug must be given within three hours of the stroke."

At the moment the service is available from 8.30am to 5pm, during the week, but the hospital trust hopes to move towards a 24-hour, seven days a week service, in the future.