Urgent Care Is Vital Stroke Victims Must Be Regarded As Emergency Cases

Summary

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STROKES are the third biggest cause of death in Scotland. They killed 6174 Scots last year. Around 15,000 people in Scotland have a stroke each year. More than 80,000 people in this country have suffered a stroke, the single biggest cause of disability. These are appalling figures which the Scottish Executive rightly wants to bring down. It has set ambitious targets to halve the rate of early death from strokes in the 15-year period to 2010.

Just how challenging that will be is confirmed by a report, published yesterday, into how stroke services are performing against national targets for patient care. Many findings in the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) report make grim reading. According to QIS, 70-per cent of patients should be transferred to a specialist stroke unit within 24 hours. However, only 12-per cent of Scotland's 33 stroke services met the target.

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Extract

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Urgent Care Is Vital Stroke Victims Must Be Regarded As Emergency Cases

Less than 40-per cent carried out CT or MRI scans on 80-per cent of patients within 48 hours - the standard se...

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