HEALTH MATTERS

DR Paul Bowen, clinical chair of NHS Eastern Cheshire CCG, and GP with McIlvride Medical Practice, Poynton PEOPLE in Eastern Cheshire who have a stroke are now getting the best hospital care in England, according to latest data.

What that means is that Eastern Cheshire patients now receive the highest standards of stroke care, such as access to urgent brain scanning 24/7, which are known to lead to shorter stays in hospital and better outcomes in terms of survival and disability.

Our table-topping performance was revealed by the Royal College of Physicians when it published its national stroke audit data for August to November 2016 – the latest period for which figures exist.

Back in 2014, Eastern Cheshire was in the bottom quarter of CCG areas for hospital stroke care but performance has been transformed by an arrangement we put in place in 2015 for patients in the critical first four hours of stroke to be taken to a specialist stroke centre for advanced treatments, including a “clot-busting” therapy called thrombolysis.

The new service was developed with East Cheshire NHS Trust, the Stroke Association and Greater Manchester Stroke Delivery Network. Since last October, the service has been replicated by 12 other CCGs in and around Greater Manchester.

Patients from most of our area are taken to Stepping Hill Hospital or Salford Royal Hospital. However, patients from Congleton and Holmes Chapel go to Royal Stoke University Hospital.