Getting the priorities right for stroke care

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2083

Published 4 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2083
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2083

Analysis

Getting the priorities right for stroke care

Cathie Sudlow, clinical senior lecturer, Charles Warlow, emeritus professor of medical neurology

¹ Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU

Correspondence to: C Sudlow cathie.sudlow@ed.ac.uk

Cathie Sudlow and Charles Warlow question whether the currentemphasis on hyperacute stroke care to improve access to thrombolysismay distract attention and resources from a truly comprehensivestroke service

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

Stroke services in the UK are currently being overhauled inresponse to the UK government’s 2007 national stroke strategy.¹The strategy was developed after the National Audit Office (NAO)report on stroke services laid out the features of a first rateservice and how improvements in the service could reduce death,disability, and recurrent stroke along with costs.² The strategyhighlights markers of a quality service (box) that are entirelyappropriate. However, possibly inaccurate estimates of clinicalbenefits and cost savings in the NAO report may have influencedsubsequent plans for stroke services.³ ⁴ These have a strongemphasis on hyperacute stroke care (the first 72 hours) andon greatly increasing the proportion of patients being givenintravenous thrombolysis, but with the risk that the many othereffective components of a comprehensive stroke service mightnot receive as much attention. The stroke strategy for Londonis a good example.⁵

Awarenessraising—. . . [Full text of this article]

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