EAST HULL

EAST HULL JUBILEE STROKE DAY 13TH OCTOBER 2003
WILLOW CLUB, HOLDERNESS ROAD, HULL

INTRODUCTION

This was the sixth and last Lottery-funded workshop facilitated by Strokewatch for this year with approximately 50 people attending.

The purpose of the workshop was to gain feedback from stroke survivors and carers who had experienced the service and this was relayed in a welcoming presentation by Strokewatch.

This was followed by a presentation by the Stroke Nurse Consultant informing all attendees of the developments in the Hull & East Riding Stroke Service, with an open session for any questions or queries, which again was much appreciated by stroke patients and carers, as in the previous Jubilee events.

The workshop then moved on to getting feedback from users and carers about their own personal experiences of the service, through small discussion groups facilitated by the stroke service staff who attended the event.

SUMMARY OF FEEDBACK

Evaluation from the workshop participants about their treatment directly after stroke was varied but the main themes suggesting the need for action included

  1. Giving more support and information to patients and carers
  2. Improving information and support given to the patient and their relatives in the early hours and days after a stroke, wherever they are situated within the hospital. .
  3. There were also concerns about lack of organisation and care at meal times. .
  4. It was good to hear some very positive comments about initial treatment after stroke, including favourable reports of the Acute Stroke Unit and Ward 2 at Castle Hill Hospital. .
  5. Experiences of follow-up by therapy and Family Support were very positive. There were excellent reports of rehabilitation experiences at Alderson Resource, good physiotherapy outcomes at St Marys and caring staff on Ward 2, Castle Hill. .
  6. With regard to information, the feedback was the most positive we have received in this series of workshops. There was positive feedback about the information people had been given, including leaflets and verbal information on Ward 110 by the Family Support team, and from Strokewatch. There is clearly still some work to do to achieve more consistently favourable feedback on the information patients and carers receive, but this was extremely encouraging. .
  7. Information about welfare benefits was again, as with all the workshops, very negatively evaluated. People find it incredibly difficult to get information about what they are entitled to in the way of benefits and financial support, and are unclear about how to access home visits from agencies which help claimants to complete the often bewildering application forms.

TIPS FOR THE PROFESSIONALS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING THE SERVICE

Those attending the workshop were invited to pass on their tips to stroke service professionals and their suggestions for improving the patient and care experience. The following points were recorded:

  1. The process needs to be speeded up especially in the early stages of admission to hospital where people may wait too long to get to the stroke unit or other ward. .
  2. The stroke service should employ a Stroke Psychologist.
  3. The knowledge base of GPs needs to be improved. .
  4. Staff and doctors should involve relatives more effectively. .
  5. Patients and relatives would appreciate information about local Stroke Clubs welfare benefits. .
  6. The discharge process should be seamless, with more information given to patients and relatives and closer links with GPs to improve their knowledge. .

ACTION PLAN

One of the key themes in this workshop was the co-ordination of stroke patients and their journey in the Acute hospital.

The Nurse Consultant together with the TIA Nurse Specialist and the Charge Nurse on Ward 110 and her team, have started an Outreach Service as a trial service to help co-ordinate the clinical and psychological care of stroke patients before they reach the Acute Stroke Unit. There is more work to do to develop this service and get it funded with a full time Nurse Specialist, but this is our goal.

The ward sister on Ward 110 is looking at a system of service delivery that would raise the profile of the support and help being given to patients at meal times. This will take a while to initiate and develop but it is recognised within the Acute Hospital that it is a very important area, making sure that patients have full supervision and support to get adequate food and hydration.

There has already been further communication between doctors, nurses and therapists within the Stroke Service and the Stroke Association Family Support Service to look at how we can work more closely together to be as effective as possible. This should also improve communication and the co-ordination of patient care.

Comments relating to the need for more therapy have also been actioned and this year the Community Rehabilitation team will be receiving a substantial sum of money to help improve the level of therapy input. Further work still needs to be done to attract enough funding for Clinical Psychology input to the service.

Strokewatch together with support from Rachael Pymer, Stroke Service Secretary, have pulled together information about benefits and how people can access them. Strokewatch will soon be printing the resulting leaflet and they will be circulating them for use early in the new year.

Professionals within the Stroke Service will be meeting up early in the new year to identify training and education that should be offered on a continuing, rolling basis for patients and carers. This would also provide another mechanism for group support and further opportunities to get clarity and information from the professionals. This training programme should be up and running by the Autumn of 2004.

Dinah Fuller
Dilys Page

November 2003