- Date published
- October 2007
- Pages
- 5
- Download publication [125kb PDF]
This paper gives The Health Foundation’s response to the Department of Health’s plans to improve stroke care in the UK.
Background
There are wide variations in the quality of stroke care in the UK. In July 2007 the Department of Health published A new ambition for stroke, setting out its plans for stroke care and inviting comments from stakeholders.
The Health Foundation’s response
The Health Foundation is an independent charitable foundation. We’re investing £20 million each year in research and programmes to improve the quality of healthcare across the UK. Our experience enables us to share evidence-based learning to inform health policy and practice.
The challenges ahead
The Health Foundation’s response focuses on five key challenges for evidence-based stroke care:
- providing evidence-based care to every patient, every time – our Safer Patients Initiative has shown that management of care can be improved using reliability principles, including the use of care bundles
- using data to drive quality improvements – our Engaging with Quality initiative has shown that using evidence from national audits combined with support to local teams can drive up standards of care
- investing in leadership to apply improvement tools and techniques – to address the dearth of knowledge about how to apply tools and techniques to achieve lasting improvements
- engaging patients in their own healthcare – despite the challenges involved, research shows that shared decision-making between patients and clinicians can be effective
- keeping the focus on prevention – as it has greater potential to reduce the burden of disease.
Conclusions
The paper concludes with recommendations for the Department of Health, strategic health authorities, commissioners and providers.
