A radical shake-up of stroke services in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is urged in a new report, which found that patients admitted at weekends are less likely to have an immediate brain scan or be admitted to a specialist unit.

Urgent action is also needed to tackle ageism in access to stroke services, say the authors of the report, published by the Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit of the Royal College of Physicians (London) (Age and Ageing advance access, doi: 10.1093/ageing/afm007).

“Overall, the standards of care for stroke patients of all ages are …