Major opportunities are being missed for the prevention of stroke, and services need reorganising to prevent unnecessary deaths, according to the largest audit of stroke prevention carried out in the United Kingdom.

Six months after their stroke a high proportion of patients were without appropriate treatment or had risk factors that were uncontrolled, say the authors of a study in Age and Ageing (2004;33:280-6).

“Major deficiencies in delivery of secondary prevention after stroke have been demonstrated. Services need reorganisation to prevent unnecessary mortality and morbidity in this group of patients. It …