Changes to Stroke Services at Pennine Acute Trust to benefit patients

Specialist Primary Stroke team at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury

From Friday 6 September 2013 all new acute stroke patients within The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust will be referred to the Trust’s specialist Primary Stroke Centre at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury for treatment and care.

The changes are part of plans to reconfigure services to improve and refine acute stroke care across the North East sector of Greater Manchester, following a request from the Greater Manchester Commissioners, the Greater Manchester Stroke and Cardiac Network (GMSCN).

The Trust currently hosts one of three hyper acute specialist Stroke Centres for Greater Manchester at Fairfield General Hospital, along with providing its two District Stroke Centres for acute and rehabilitation at North Manchester General Hospital and The Royal Oldham Hospital.

Two new wards have been identified on the Fairfield General Hospital site – 11a and 11b, and estates work is currently under way to prepare them for the changeover. Ward 5 at Fairfield General will still be the Primary Stroke Centre, with 16 beds and wards 11a and 11b will be for sub acute and stroke rehabilitation patients. Ward G1 at The Royal Oldham Hospital will provide sub acute and stroke rehabilitation beds.

Any existing stroke patients in hospital during the date of the service move will be taken to Fairfield General Hospital for their first bundle of care or up to three days.

Dr Khalil Kawafi, consultant stroke physician and clinical lead at The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “All the stroke physicians together with all our stroke teams working within Pennine Acute are really excited about this reconfiguration.

"This will benefit patients across the whole spectrum of stroke care, from the acute phase and then the sub-acute and rehabilitation phases. It is a real opportunity to consolidate our already outstanding stroke service, which will not only benefit stroke patients now but future patients.”

Cath Curley, thrombolysis co-ordinator and specialist nurse at the Trust, added: “Fairfield currently has one of the top three door to needle times in the country for stroke thrombolysis, which is 30 minutes less than the national average. The more patients we can treat during the first four hours following a stroke, the more we can improve patients’ long term outcomes.”

Louise Williams, assistant directorate manager, medicine and community services, said: “We aim to maintain the high standards that we currently achieve and strive for even better.”