A stroke service at Tallaght Hospital has achieved dramatic results, more than halving the number of deaths among stroke patients.
The service, the first of its kind in an Irish teaching hospital, also achieved a steady increase in the number of people who could go home instead of to a nursing home.
Figures published in the Irish Medical Journal show that in three years the acute stroke service reduced the proportion of stroke patients who died from 19 per cent to 9 per cent. The proportion of patients who could go home from the hospital rose from 55 per cent to 68 per cent.
According to a report by the Department of Health and Children, , 2,580 people were estimated to have died of stroke in 1998. If the figures from Tallaght could be achieved on a national scale, this would suggest that as many as 1,200 lives a year could be saved.
However, few hospitals have a stroke consultant. The report calls for an organised stroke service in every acute hospital.
The service began in the Adelaide and Meath Hospitals when they were located in Dublin city centre and moved to Tallaght when both hospitals were transferred there.
The stroke service is made up of existing hospital staff who have a particular interest in working with stroke patients. Working specifically with stroke patients enables them to improve their expertise, and the report suggests that this may explain the improved success rate.
Weblink: http://www.imj.ie/issue23/ Paper/Paper5.htm (Full text of report in Irish Medical Journal)