NHS South West is to receive £2.4 million over the next three years to invest in improvements to stroke services across the region.

The Government has committed an extra £77 million over the next three years to develop innovative new approaches to delivering stroke services and support areas of poor performance to propel the NHS and social services towards meeting key markers in the Stroke Strategy.

The strategy, published in December 2007, sets goals for the delivery of stroke services, from prevention through to life-long support.

NHS South West is conducting a three month review of stroke services across the region, to be concluded by August 2008, and the outcome of this review will be used to inform investment plans and target improvements in stroke services across the region.

This may include looking at ways to:

• Quicken the response to strokes, which could include reorganising emergency response, stroke teams and radiology units to ensure rapid access to scans, thrombolysis and early multi-disciplinary assessment.
• Improve access to rehabilitation services, which could include setting up an early supported discharge scheme or moving rehabilitation into a community setting.

There are some 900,000 people in England people living with the consequences of a stroke.

Stroke is also the largest single cause of severe disability in England, and much of the extra investment will go towards better long-term support for the 300,000 people living with moderate to severe disabilities as a result of stroke.

Every local authority in England will receive a ring-fenced grant worth an average of £100,000 per year. The money would ensure the better support of patients with strokes and their carers, such as through counselling, and rehabilitation services.

Liz Redfern, Director of Patient Care and Nursing for NHS South West, said: "The investment is great news for patients in the South West, as it will allow us to focus our efforts on speeding up responses to strokes, which will save more lives and improve the ability of people to return to normal life following strokes."

"We are aware that the quality of stroke services varies across the South West and we are currently embarking on a review of stroke services across the region, the outcome of which will inform how we utilise these additional resources".

"Strokes are devastating events for patients and their families and need to be treated as an emergency to ensure the best possible outcome."

"It's vitally important that we get patients into hospital as soon as possible following a stroke. We need to be ensuring that they are seen by a specialist and scanned promptly, before being transferred to a specialist stroke unit for the best treatment."

3:17pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

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