October 28, 2022 - 612 views
Ahead of World Stroke Day, Janet Finch-Saunders, Member of the Welsh Parliament for Aberconwy, has spoken out about the service provided by Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, and delays in getting stroke patients to hospitals.
The concerns were raised during a Welsh Conservative debate which called on the Welsh Government to recognise that an urgent response is required to prevent danger to life for people suffering a stroke, and instruct the Health and Social Care Committee to conduct a review into the benefits and challenges of re-categorising strokes as “red: immediately life-threatening calls” under the Clinical Response Model. Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in Wales.
Commenting after participating in the debate, Janet said: “An estimated 7,400 people a year in Wales experience a stroke. That’s the equivalent of a whole town every year!
“It takes on average 6hrs 35mins between stroke onset and arrival at hospital in Wales. Compare that with 3 hours 41 minutes in England and 2 hours 41 minutes in Northern Ireland.
“The Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) data, which scores Welsh NHS responses to key indicators, such as time to scan, time to treatment, and time to admission to stroke units, highlights some concerning trends in North Wales hospitals. With a worst possible score of E, Wrexham and Glan Clwyd have seen no improvement in their SSNAP scores of D since 2021.
“In fact, Ysbyty Glan Clwyd took longer than an hour on average to scan stroke patients. Alongside Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board providing an explanation as to what changes are being made at Glan Clwyd to ensure that scans are performed in shorter time frames, there is a need for the Welsh Government to support calls for re-categorising strokes as ‘red: immediately life-threatening calls’”.
