Stroke patients prefer care in specialist units

Patients who have had a stroke are more satisfied with their care if they are looked after on specialist wards rather than general wards. This is the finding of a survey of patients' experience of their care in hospitals in England published this week.

The survey of 1713 patients (mean age 75 years) admitted to hospitals in England between April and June 2004 with a primary diagnosis of intracerebral haemorrhage, cerebral infarction, or stroke showed that most were positive about the treatment they received in hospital, with 69% of patients rating their care as excellent or very good.

Only a quarter of patients were initially admitted to a stroke unit, however, and a third (36%) of the patients …