ONE in five acute hospitals still does not have the facilities to care properly for patients who have suffered a stroke, experts have said.
A national audit of stroke units has found that the NHS has only half the total number of beds needed to provide an adequate service for patients.
All acute hospitals now had dedicated units for heart attack patients, but not all had stroke wards, a report from the Royal College of Physicians said yesterday. Despite great improvement, 39 more stroke units were needed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the report concluded.
Of those hospitals that had a stroke unit in 2002, most had not expanded and the total number of stroke beds was only half what was required.
Progress had been slow in other areas, such as the number of nurses caring for stroke victims and the availability of patient information, said the report.
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The 2004 National Sentinal Audit of Stroke, funded by the Healthcare Commission, did, however, show an increase in hospital stroke facilities over the past two years.
A total of 82 per cent of acute hospitals in England now had a stroke unit, compared with 73 per cent two years ago. Ten years ago, there were virtually none.
In Northern Ireland, 85 per cent of hospitals had stroke units. Wales had units in only 45 per cent of hospitals.
Tony Rudd, chairman of the Intercollegiate Stroke Group, the expert organisation that commissioned the report, said: “Much has been achieved in improving hospital stroke care over the last few years. However, the few laggard hospitals that have failed to provide a specialist stroke service need urgent help to change.”
Helen Laing, commissioning manager for the Healthcare Commission’s national clinical audit, said: “While the number of hospitals who have dedicated stroke units has improved, there is still some way to go. We hope that next year’s audit will show even greater improvements.”