Key stroke treatment still not available around the clock across England | Stroke
The NHS has failed to make a “life-changing” treatment for stroke available around the clock across England, despite repeated promises from ministers.
The health service was expected to improve stroke care by making the clot-removal technique called mechanical thrombectomy available 24/7 across the country from April 1.
Doctors describe it as a game-changing intervention that, if done quickly, could prevent someone who has had a major stroke from suffering serious disability.
However, seven of 24 regional stroke centers in England still do not offer thrombectomy services at all hours, mainly because they do not have enough doctors and other staff to do so.
Experts fear the failure of the NHS to provide universal 24/7 access to treatment could mean that patients who suffer strokes in underserved areas overnight, in the evenings or at weekends, could become seriously disabled or even die because they cannot receive the procedure.
More than 100,000 people have a stroke in the UK each year; 38,000 of them die and many face life-changing disabilities that take away their independence.
Dr Stroke specialist at the Royal Stoke Hospital in Stoke. Sanjeev Nayak said: “A patient presenting in a well-served area during normal business hours may receive rapid, life-changing treatment, while the same patient presenting at night or in a different area may not receive a thrombectomy at all. This creates a veritable postcode lottery in accessing one of the most effective treatments in modern medicine.”
For thrombectomy, 17 out of 24 centers already offer it 24 hours a day, all year round. But seven other companies in Hull, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Brighton and Coventry failed to meet an April 1 deadline to expand their services to 24/7 operation.
NHS minister Karin Smyth confirmed As recently as March 23 The health service is scheduled to make thrombectomy available 24/7 across England from the beginning of this month, he said.
NHS England has allocated extra money to seven regions to secure 24/7 access to service delivery. The funding was approved in February.
Alexis Kolodziej, deputy chief executive of the Stroke Association, said: “It is extremely troubling that access to thrombectomy depends on the time of day and the area you live in, and for some patients in some parts of the UK, 24-hour access to thrombectomy is simply impossible. failure to fulfill one’s promise “It puts patients at a significant disadvantage.”
He welcomed investment in the roll-out of thrombectomy but added: “It is unfortunately slow to be implemented in certain parts of the country.”
The NHS spends more than £100 million a year on treatment. This is seen as an important way to help the government achieve its goal of reducing emissions. 113,000 preventable deaths Diseases occur every year in the UK, especially major killers such as cancer and heart disease.
Thrombectomy is a minimally invasive, nonsurgical treatment of severe strokes caused by blockage of an artery in the brain. Doctors insert a catheter into the patient through an artery in the groin or wrist, move it to the brain, and remove the clot, allowing the blood to start flowing again.
Nayak said the NHS had made significant progress in making the treatment available in recent years but “the concern is that without consistent 24/7 access across all areas, some patients will face critical delays or miss out on the opportunity for thrombectomy altogether.”
Coventry University Hospital, one of seven centers that missed the deadline, is sending stroke patients needing thrombectomy to Birmingham University Hospital outside its ward’s opening hours. The Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton has a similar arrangement to University College London hospital.
This leaves Yorkshire and the north-east as areas without 24/7 service. The shortage of stroke doctors, specialist nurses, and interventional neuroradiologists who perform thrombectomies is the main reason why not all hospitals yet offer all-hour access.
NHS England confirmed it had not met its target of providing universal 24/7 access to thrombectomy by April 1 but said doing so remained a priority.
A spokesman said: “The majority of thrombectomy centers now offer a 24/7 service and we are working directly with trusts and integrated care boards to further improve access for all patients as quickly as possible. This includes providing £14 million of extra targeted funding to support the expansion of the service, including additional staff training to perform mechanical thrombectomy.”
