Today is World Stroke Day (29th October), the Trust has been reflecting on the progress that has been made in our stroke services.
As part of the re design of stroke services, the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) opened at CIC in December 2019 to provide a 7 day service in order to improve quality, resilience and equity of stroke care for all people living in north Cumbria.
The HASU unit provides urgent specialised stroke care for the first 72 hours for anyone suspected from suffering a stroke in north Cumbria. The Unit has links with the RVI in Newcastle for more specialised input such as brain surgery and thrombectomy.
The Early Stroke Supported Discharge Service (ESSD) services based at West, Eden and Carlisle enables approximately 40% patients who are appropriate to be discharged home rapidly and receive specialist rehabilitation at home.
There are Stroke inpatient rehabilitation wards at both Carlisle and Whitehaven. From April 2020 to April 2021 there were 1031 admissions of which 610 were diagnosed as stroke.
The Stroke multidisciplinary team consists of medics/consultant, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychologist/wellbeing coaches, dietician, rehabilitation assistants, ophthalmologists, pharmacists, radiographers and orthotics.
The Trust work closely with the Stroke Association who have two stroke association support coordinators covering North Cumbria.
Joanne Howard, Clinical Lead for the HASU and ESSD teams said:
“Stroke is a medical emergency and people should call 999 for an ambulance if they suspect a stroke. Think and act FAST;
- Face – has their face fallen on one side? Can they smile?
- Arms – can they raise both their arms and keep them there?
- Speech is their speech slurred?
- Time – time to call 999
Other stroke symptoms include sudden weakness or numbness on one side of the body, difficulty finding words or speaking in clear sentences, sudden blurred vision or loss of sight in one or both eyes, sudden memory loss or confusion, and dizziness or a sudden fall. More info on stroke.org.uk page.”