A bold new health programme aims to reduce the number of stroke deaths by a third by 2010. The Stroke 90:10 initiative could see an unprecedented level of stroke sufferers leaving hospital without serious disability in the region, if it meets its ambitious targets.
The initiative aims to significantly change frontline care practice. One pioneering aim is to make sure anyone with a suspected stroke receives a brain imaging CT scan within 24 hours. Currently, that rate stands at around 43% of people in the UK only.
Stroke 90:10 is being run by 28 hospitals in the North West in partnership with the Health Foundation, the Stroke Association and the Royal College of Physicians. It follows research by the Health Foundation last year which found that the UK lags behind other European and Western countries in dealing with strokes – currently the third biggest killer in the UK.
The hospitals aim to set the pace for the rest of the NHS working in parallel with the government which also recently introduced its own National Stroke Strategy.