Trust in top national league for Stroke Services

Dr Khalil Kawafi, consultant physician and stroke lead at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

The Pennine Acute Trust’s four hospitals have all scored highly in the national stroke audit results for 2010/11.

The ratings come from the National Sentinel Stroke Audit, which is carried out every two years by The Royal College of Physicians, and supported by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The audit compiled figures on patients who were seen at the Rochdale Infirmary, The Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital and Fairfield General Hospital between 1 April and 30 June 2010.

A total of 200 hospitals underwent monitoring. Based on the provision of a summary of hospital performances, all of the four different hospitals within the Trust have shown that all twenty-six key indicators representing important aspects of stroke care were either met with or, in many instances, were above the national average.

Rochdale Infirmary, The Royal Oldham Hospital and Fairfield General Hospital and were all placed in the top 25 per cent of scores nationally for the following standards: 

• Patients treated for 90 per cent of stay in a stroke unit
• Swallowing assessment by a speech and language therapist within 72 hours
• Patients initially admitted to a general assessment unit
• Patients initially admitted to a stroke unit
• Patients admitted to a stroke unit within four hours
• Discussion with patients about their diagnosis
• Percentage of patients receiving nine and 12 indicators
• Overall position in 2008 and 2010

North Manchester General Hospital was in the middle ranking.

Julie Smith, directorate manager for stroke services, said: “In 2009/10 our commissioning primary care trusts set us nine Clinical Quality Indicators against which our performance would be measured. It was expected that we would deliver these indicators for 80 per cent of our patients. However, in March 2010 the Trust achieved an average of 86 per cent, and in February 2011 the compliance figure was 90 per cent overall.

“The stroke services have also recently completed their second annual stroke patient satisfaction survey and this again shows a continued high level of satisfaction with stroke services at Pennine.”

One stop clinics for TIA (transient ischaemic attack) were introduced across the Trust in March 2010. The national standard for treatment of TIA patients for 2010/11 is that 60 per cent of high risk TIA patients are treated within 24hrs of first presentation to a healthcare service. The Pennine Acute Trust has seen 93 per cent of high risk TIA patients within 24 hours and 100 per cent of low risk patients within seven days. The Trust expects further reduction in waiting times, to provide this service within three days.

Dr Khalil Kawafi, consultant physician and stroke lead at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “The stroke services in The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have gone from strength to strength in the last two years as evidenced by the improvement in the National Sentinel Audit figures which are due to the enthusiasm, dedication and hard work of the stroke teams across the Trust.”