BMJ  2007;334:607 (24 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39157.494282.DB

News

Report calls for urgent action on ageism in treating stroke patients

Roger Dobson

Abergavenny

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

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 often far from ideal," they say. "The demonstration that admission at weekends reduces the chances of brain scanning within 24 hours reinforces the need to develop a health service that operates on a seven-day week rather than the current five-day week.

"Scanners often lie idle at night and weekends while patients suffer from a . . . [Full text of this article]


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