Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 November 2016
154. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health his views on the recent national stroke audit and the action his Department and the HSE will take to address the deficiencies identified in it. [33252/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Stroke Audit of Rehabilitation Units (2016) acknowledged that the care of people with stroke in Ireland has improved since the HSE established its National Clinical Programme for Stroke in 2010. The audit noted that stroke deaths in Ireland have reduced by more than 15% and that the emergency care for stroke patients provided in most Irish acute hospitals is now quite good.
In effect:
- Fewer stroke patients are dying in hospital;
- Fewer stroke patients are being discharged to nursing homes;
- More patients are being discharged home directly from acute hospitals;
- Emergency thrombolysis is provided now to patients in all regions of the country;
- Since the commencement of the National Clinical Programme for Stroke, nine new stroke units have been opened. This brings the total number of stroke units in acute hospitals to twenty one representing good progress from the single unit available that was reported in 2008.
This is good news for stroke services and the findings from this particular audit would suggest a number of recommendations including:
- Dedicated stroke rehabilitation beds should be increased;
- Increasing the number of Health and Social Care Professionals to ensure patients receive appropriate levels of therapy to achieve the best recovery outcome;
- Investing in psychology services;
- Increasing the number of Early Supported Discharge (ESD) /community rehabilitation teams to ensure appropriate patients do not remain in hospital/rehabilitation units longer than is necessary. (Three ESD pilot sites are already in operation at the Mater, Tallaght and Galway University Hospital)
This audit from the HSE’s National Clinical Programme for Stroke and the Irish Heart Foundation, along with its suggested recommendations, are now available to the HSE for review when framing its National Service Plan for 2017 in the context of the resources available to it. Some of these suggested recommendations were also considered as part of the Estimates process.
