Stroke care study published

The quality of stroke care in the UK is improving, but significant inequalities still exist, according to a study by a team of researchers and clinicians at King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, as part of King's Health Partners. The study was published in the British Medical Journal this week. Previous reports have suggested that the quality of UK stroke care is improving, but there is limited information on trends of care from population-based studies. The team therefore assessed the provision of acute stroke care for 3,800 patients registered on the south London stroke register between 1995 and 2009. They measured the provision of effective acute stroke care, in line with current guidelines, against demographic factors such as age, sex, ethnic origin and socioeconomic status. The proportion of patients receiving effective acute stroke care interventions increased substantially between 1995 and 2009. However, between 2007 and 2009, five percent of patients were still not admitted to hospital after an acute stroke, particularly those with milder strokes, and 21percent of patients were not admitted to a stroke unit.