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UK stroke care criticised
People suffering strokes in the UK do not get the standard of care they could expect in many other Western European countries, a senior doctor has claimed.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, Professor Hugh Markus of St George's University of London highlighted three international studies in which the UK was ranked bottom for stroke care.
“A number of studies have shown that if you have a stroke in the UK you're more likely to die, and if you do survive you're more likely to end up disabled,” Professor Markus told Channel 4 News. “So we certainly have worse care than many of our European colleagues such as France and Germany and Scandinavia.”
While the UK appears to spend at least as much money on stroke care as other nations, Prof Markus says that the provision of effective new treatments still lags behind.
His claims echo a 2005 report by the National Audit Office, which concluded that if stroke services were reorganised, 550 annual deaths could be avoided and 1,700 more patients would make full recoveries each year. Later this year, the Department of Health is due to publish recommendations for a National Stroke Strategy based on this report.
According to the Stroke Association, every five minutes someone in the UK has a stroke, making it the third most common cause of death.
Category: Healthcare
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