12.01.11
Stroke care patchy and too hospital-focused, review finds
The quality of stroke care varies wildly across the country, a major review has shown, with only a third of primary care trusts offering the required access to psychological therapy and stroke counsellors.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) says services are particularly strong in the North-East and South-West of England, but that care for stroke victims once they left hospital were especially inconsistent.
Some places have virtually no access to specialist community-based rehabilitation, the review found.
CQC chief executive Cynthia Bower said: “We expect to see local health and social services working with stroke survivors, carers and representative groups to agree and implement a plan to improve services drawing on the results of our assessments of services in local areas.”
The CQC said that two-thirds of PCTs commissioned specialist stroke physiotherapy and less than 40% of areas provided good access to psychological therapy or stroke counsellors.
Home-based rather than hospital care – early-supported-discharge – which achieves better results was available in just over a third of areas, and in just under half people had to wait an average of two weeks or more for community-based speech and language therapy.
Cynthia Bower said: “Stroke is the single largest cause of disability in adults and our evidence shows that early access to intense rehabilitation is beneficial to people’s recovery. Services have made improvements over recent years in the care provided in the hours and days that follow their stroke. It is vital that this momentum is maintained and that improvements are made in the care and support provided in the longer term.
“The level of variation is a concern, but the report also shows that the barriers to effective care after transfer home and around person centred care can be overcome and improvements made, which can help people to recover from, and cope with, life after stroke.”
The CQC also expressed concern at the quality of information given to people leaving hospital and the quality and amount of telephone helpline care.
Joe Korner, Director of Communications at The Stroke Association, said: “In some areas, essential treatments such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychological support are not available to stroke survivors. The fact that most other areas are able to provide these vital services shows that much more can and should be done to meet stroke survivors’ needs.”
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