1. The stroke service is now just over two years old – are you generally pleased with how it’s developing?

I think we should be extremely pleased with how well our stroke service is developing in such a relatively short space of time. Most doctors and nurses in the acute hospital setting are now very much aware that there is a stroke service and not just an acute stroke unit. The most rewarding thing for me is to see that despite all the difficulties that people are faced with in the day to day running and provision of such a service, that people working across all the disciplines and professions and organisations continue to work with a real passion and mission to develop a service of excellence - and l don't think we can ask more than that.

2. What would you say are the outstanding achievements – what are you most pleased about?

I think the most outstanding achievements are the way that staff have come together to work together to provide the best service they can for stroke patients. We are now piloting a multidisciplinary care pathway document, which underpins those standards of care across all the disciplines and professions involved in stroke care. We now have a fully comprehensive training programme run over three days that is being delivered by professionals working in the service, across all the disciplines. We had over 100 applications for the first course which is due to run in April!! We must have already delivered training and education to at least 600 different individuals across Hull & East Riding and they are still queuing up for more! We are now starting to build up a better picture of information about the number of patients we are getting through the service, and that is despite not yet having a dedicated person to look at this. We will be sharing that up to date information at the Annual General Meeting.
We have now got Patient Information and Personal Health Records starting to be used; again with a mission to ensure that all patients and carers get the information they require, and have got something to reference when they go home to remind them of what has been said.
Three members of staff from the Community Rehabilitation Service, Sheila Stark (Rossmore), Margaret Collier and Alison Standish (Physiotherapy Assistants) got together and started to 'round us all up' to support fundraising initiatives to provide more facilities and equipment for stroke patients, particularly in the community rehabilitation units. They have already raised over £2000 and that means we are able to buy additional pieces of equipment to improve the patient's experience and facilities in these units. It takes a lot of energy to do that sort of thing, and they continue to organise fundraising events! It is absolutely brilliant!!

3. What are your main worries?

Burn out!! I think the commitment by so very many people working in the stroke service, has been relentless and we need to make sure that they continue to muster up the strength to keep going so that we can build and develop our local stroke service further.

4. Are there enough beds for the acute stage or are stroke patients having to be accommodated on wards other than 110?

We are currently averaging between 5 and 10 stroke patients a week being accommodated on other wards than the acute stroke unit. Some of those then transfer to the acute stroke unit when a bed 'frees up'. It would be easy to say at the moment, that in the light of those facts, that there are not enough beds for the acute stage of our stroke patients, but it is not quite a simple as that and we have already had discussions to try and highlight what the problems are in freeing up those beds and moving people on to their next stage of rehabilitation and support following their stroke.

5. What about transfers from Ward 110 – are patients moving on when they are ready? If not, what kinds of problems hold up the process?

We do get delays in transferring people that need complex support packages via social services, especially those people who are not well enough to actively partake in a rehabilitation programme and need long term nursing care. At any one time, we might have between 4 and 6 people waiting on the acute stroke unit in those circumstances. We have also had delays in transferring patients out to an appropriate rehabilitation unit because there is very little speech and language therapy in the whole area at the moment and this has been rather a problem. We have also had a shortage of occupational therapy, both in the acute stroke unit and in the community stroke units and for want of a little extra resource there, we could transfer people much more quickly and also facilitate their transfer home much more quickly

6. What is the service still short of? – Your three main priorities?

1. Occupational Therapy
2. Speech and Language Therapy
3. Access to Clinical Psychology support when needed
4. Fully funded support to the nurse running the TIA and Rapid Assessment clinic which is essential if we are going to keep this service running, let alone develop it.

We are not short of enthusiasm and commitment and we have got everyone, including Strokewatch to thank for that.

MANY THANKS FOR YOUR TIME