Most SA hospitals lack adequate stroke care

DESPITE 132 000 strokes a year, South Africa still does not have adequate stroke care for patients in the hospitals in the country.

This is according to Wits emergency physician, Dr Feroza Motara, who said strokes caused the deaths of 23 000 South Africans in 2014.

Boehringer Ingelheim, a pharmaceutical company, says one person is diagnosed with the condition every six minutes.

“In South Africa, one in three people diagnosed with acute stroke will die, and one in four will be left with a lifechanging disability. Many of these patients may have been saved and gone on to live lives free from disability if they had received appropriate care in a stroke-ready facility equipped to deal with this life-threatening medical emergency,” said Boehringer Ingelheim general manager Tim Snell.

The company was launching the Angels Initiative, aimed at increasing stroke awareness and education across South Africa, and to provide best practice guidance, training and equipment to health-care professionals.

The goal for the initiative is to register 165 stroke-ready units across the country by November 2019.

Motara, also a member of the Angels Initiative steering committee, said strokes were the second leading cause of mortality and the leading cause of disability in the country. The immediate need for an updated approach and clinical interventions in diagnosis, treatment, care and rehabilitation of stroke patients was stressed.

“Our burden of risk factors for strokes is among the highest in the world,” Motara said.

“This initiative, with full scientific and financial backing, is of paramount importance to the future health of South Africans, where heart disease and stroke incidence often affect adults in their most productive years.

“The high economic costs, including escalated staff turnover and absenteeism, impact greatly on productivity and add to the already unsustainable economic burden on our health-care system,” she said.

Motara said making a hospital “stroke-treatment ready” included hospital admission and care for patients by a multidisciplinary team which included medical, nursing and therapy staff.

This team ought to have specialist knowledge, training and skills in stroke care. There are currently 19 such centres. FORMER SABC executive, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, claims he was prejudiced during a parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of the broadcaster, it emerged yesterday.

Parliament’s ad hoc committee conducting the probe met to discuss a summary of submissions it received on its draft report.

Motsoeneng’s legal representative wanted it on record that his client never had the chance to appear before the committee and was therefore prejudiced.

MPs are set to reject this as the SABC was given ample opportunity during the inquiry to present its case or cross-examine witnesses. – ANA