Audit shows stroke kills 6,000 people a year due to lack of specialist care

Six thousand people die unnecessarily every year in the UK because of a lack of specialist stroke care.

An audit carried out by the Royal College of Physicians found that only 36 per cent of stroke patients spent any time in a stroke unit.

In 1999, 25 per cent of stroke patients spent most of their stay in a specialist unit and by 2001-02 this had increased to 27 per cent. The college said that if this rate continued it would be 73 years before all patients with a stroke spent half of their hospital time in a dedicated stroke unit.

Dr Tony Rudd, a stroke specialist at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London and chairman of the RCP's intercollegiate working party for stroke, which led the audit, said evidence suggested that 19 per cent fewer people would die if they were treated in a specialist stroke unit. That amounted to about 6,000 more people dying, or a total of 12,500 left dead or disabled, every year in the UK.

"People are dying unnecessarily and living with long-term disability, some of which could have been avoided, because of the failure to deliver specialist stroke care," he said.

The audit showed there had been some progress in the care of stroke patients but that most hospitals still had a long way to go to improve facilities, diagnosis, treatment and care, mainly due to a lack of resources.

Dr Rudd said: "Co-ordinated care saves lives and reduces disability. Although we are seeing improvements in stroke care, we are not going to achieve the ideal until stroke care is given a higher priority."

The Government's national service framework for older people stated that by 2004 everyone who had a stroke should receive specialist care.

Each year 130,000 people have a stroke, and the condition is the fourth most common cause of death in the UK.

The number of hospitals that treat people in such a unit had increased from 45 per cent in 1998 to 73 per cent in 2001-02, but the number of allocated beds was inadequate to meet demand, the audit said.

The British Association of Stroke Physicians said the audit showed an urgent need for more resources at all levels. Professor Martin Brown, the association's president, said: "Although it is good news that 80 per cent of NHS trusts have specialist care, this is totally inadequate in terms of the time needed to build and maintain a specialist stroke service."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "While we recognise that there are still many improvements to be made, the greater emphasis that has been placed on the delivery of good quality stroke services, as a result of the NSF, will help ensure that those improvements are achieved."