Deans' stroke musings: NHS stroke care declining not improving, charity warns

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, December 2, 2024

NHS stroke care declining not improving, charity warns

Well, since no one is measuring 100% recovery, you'll never get there.

“What's measured, improves.” So said management legend and author Peter F. Drucker

NHS stroke care declining not improving, charity warns

Thousands of stroke patients are missing out on lifechanging treatment as specialist, in-hospital care(NOT RECOVERY!) falls - while waiting times to get on a stroke ward soars, we can reveal.

A year ago we launched our 'Let Stroke Patients Thrive' campaign, for better aftercare and access(NOT RECOVERY!) to miracle procedure thrombectomy to speedily remove clots so patients can return home that same day.

But the Stroke Association claim despite the dedication of an overstretched workforce, the current NHS stroke care(NOT RECOVERY!) system still fails the 90,000 new survivors every year.

Analysis of 2023-24 data by King’s College London's Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) reveals rehab and thrombectomy are still being delivered erratically - with some acute stroke care(NOT RECOVERY!) basics worse than 10 years ago.

The number of stroke patients directly admitted to a specialist unit within four hours of arrival at hospital was 46.7 per cent in 2023/24, but 54.9 per cent in 2019/20 and 58 per cent in 2013/14 - this dramatically increases the risk of survivors suffering long-term poor health and disabilities. (You're measuring a process, NOT A RESULT! I'd have you all fired for not even setting correct goals!)

Speedy treatment of stroke is crucial as 1.9 million brain cells die every minute that a stroke is left untreated, increasing the risk of serious long-term disability and even death.

Meanwhile the number of patients spending over 90 per cent of their hospital stay on a specialist stroke unit has decreased in the last five years from 83.2 per cent in 2019/20 to 75.9 per cent in 2023/24 - a drop of over 4,400 patients.

This specialist support is key to helping reduce mortality within the first 30 days and optimising stroke recovery.

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Juliet Bouverie OBE, Chief Executive of the Stroke Association, said: "Patients have been battling what feels like a permacrisis in our healthcare which has been blighting NHS care(NOT RECOVERY!) for long enough,

"Governmental change is long overdue, and the 10 Year Health Plan is an ideal opportunity to ensure everyone who has a stroke can survive and live well."

Hailed as a "miracle" medical procedure when first discovered two decades ago, a thrombectomy sees a stent passed up an artery or vein to drag out the blood clot causing the stroke.

It is thought up to 10 per cent of UK stroke patients may be eligible for thrombectomy every year, more than 9,000 people - but sporadic availability means only 3.9 per cent accessed one last year.

Since last year the Daily Express has been calling for a full, 24/7 thrombectomy access(NOT RECOVERY!)in the UK - after experts branded it currently "a postcode lottery".

With NHS England’s target at 10 per cent by 2027/28, the 3.9 per cent is way behind and there are continued regional disparities.

Similarly, thrombolysis, a clot-busting drug, is underused. Around 20 per cent of stroke patients are eligible for the treatment but only an average of 11.6 per cent patients received the treatment in 2023/24 against the NHS England target of 20 per cent by 2025 to achieve the best performance in Europe.

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