Countess of Chester Hospital stroke unit expands after £450,000 investment

Feb 23 2010 Chester Chronicle

THE Countess of Chester Hospital has expanded its stroke unit from six beds to 28 thanks to an increase in specialist stroke nurse support and the recruitment of a new consultant post.

In order to improve stroke care locally the Countess has invested approximately £450,000 to expand its specialist stroke clinical team.

The unit’s expansion to 28 beds enables patients to receive intensive, high quality care from a greater number of specialist stroke clinical staff.

This increase will also allow for a greater number of direct admissions , avoiding unnecessary delays in specialist care.

The trust’s stroke service has been developing for several years and this latest investment is a substantial move forward, which the trust is hoping will pave the way towards a 24 hour a day thrombolysis, clot busting drug service – which is currently only provided by a small number of trusts in the region.

Dr Kausik Chatterjee, lead consultant for stroke services, said: “Stroke is the third biggest cause of death in the UK and the largest single cause of severe disability. Each year more than 110,000 people in England will suffer from a stroke and what is more worrying is the fact that anyone is at risk.”

The Department of Health recognised the importance of developing better stroke services by including specific milestones, targets and actions in the National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People launched in March 2001.

Following on from this, the Government launched a national stroke strategy to modernise service provision and deliver the newest treatments for stroke.