Enhanced Stroke Services are starting this week across UHDB
From Wednesday 20 May 2020 at 8am, UHDB is enhancing its Stroke Services at both Queen’s Hospital Burton and Royal Derby Hospital. This will see patients benefit from improved access to specialist consultant delivered care.
The Trust is expanding the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) at Royal Derby Hospital to be able to treat patients from East Staffordshire in the first critical 72 hours after a patient has suffered stroke.
One of the key motivations behind the creation of UHDB in July 2018 was to reduce the variations in access to care across the communities and improve outcomes for all patients. Since that time, teams from across the Trust’s hospitals have been working together on plans to enhance the Stroke service.
The changes will see all patients with suspected stroke conveyed directly to the Royal Derby Hospital, where they will receive time critical assessments, diagnostic imaging, and treatments such as thrombolysis and assessment for thrombectomy.
Following 72 hours’ care on the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit at the RDH, patients from the East Staffordshire will be repatriated to the dedicated Acute Stroke Unit at Queen’ Hospital Burton to continue their care.
This extension of Hyper Acute services to patients from East Staffordshire will deliver a greater chance of disability-free survival, increased quality of life, and an overall reduced length of stay in hospital.
The commencement of this new pathway, initially planned for 1 April 2020, was delayed, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Governing Bodies in Common had previously ratified the centralisation of hyper acute services at UHDB following an eight week consultation period with patients, the public and partners.