NHS England has outlined plans for new advanced emergency treatment which will benefit an estimated 8,000 stroke patients a year.
The organisation says the treatment can significantly decrease the risk of long-term disability and also save millions of pounds in long term health and social care costs.
It will commission mechanical thrombectomy so it can become more widely available for patients who have certain types of acute ischaemic stroke – a severe form of the condition where a blood vessel to the brain becomes blocked, often leading to long-term disability. If used within the first six hours of symptoms beginning to show – alongside other specialist medical treatment and care – the procedure has been shown in clinical trials to significantly improve survival and quality of life by restoring blood flow and therefore limiting brain damage.
Work by NHS England is now underway to assess the readiness of each of the 24 neuroscience centres across the country which are set to introduce the service. It is expected the treatment will start to be phased in later in this year with an estimated 1,000 patients set to benefit across the first year of introduction. NHS England will work with Health Education England and trusts to build on the expertise that is currently available in these specialised centres, developing the workforce and systems to enable an estimated 8,000 to receive this treatment in coming years.
Stroke is estimated to cost the NHS around £3bn per year, with additional cost to the economy of a further £4bn in lost productivity, disability and informal care.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “This major national upgrade to stroke services puts the NHS at the leading edge of stroke care internationally. It’s another practical example of the NHS quietly expanding innovative modern care that will really benefit patients, but which tends to be invisible in the public debate about the NHS.”
Professor Tony Rudd, national clinical director for stroke at NHS England, said: “Stroke can be devastating for patients and their loved ones – both at the time and the long term impact it can have on their everyday lives.
“The quality of care and survival rates for stroke are now at record levels, and NHS England is committed to fast-tracking new and effective treatments – particularly, as in this case, where they deliver long-term benefits for both patients and the taxpayer.
“We will therefore now be working with and investing in specialist stroke services across the country to ensure we can introduce this out to all patients who would benefit, as soon as possible.”
St George’s University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust became the first hospital in the UK to have a fully staffed 24/7 thrombectomy service for acute stroke. The Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) at St George’s treats over 1,200 stroke patients each year. The thrombectomy procedure itself is carried out by interventional neuro-radiologists, with the patient’s before and after care provided by the stroke team.
Dr Jeremy Madigan, consultant diagnostic and interventional neuroradiologist at St George’s, said: “This is great news for patients. At St George’s, our patients are benefiting from the thrombectomy service we provide – with an 80-90% chance of opening up blocked vessels via this technique, compared to 30% with traditional clot-busting drugs. Patients with acute stroke require a range of different interventions, but providing a thrombectomy service – including at all times of the day, as we do at St George’s – radically improves the range and mix of interventions available to us as clinicians.”
