Royal Free stroke unit celebrates coming top of national league table

THE stroke unit at the Hampstead’s Royal Free Hospital has been named the best in England and Wales, following a national audit.
The Royal College Of Physicians’ study, funded by the Healthcare Commission, is the first to involve all hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the Royal Free came top.
More than 130,000 people in England and Wales have a stroke every year. Strokes are caused by a burst blood vessel in the brain. The resulting clot destroys vital cells, causing paralysis down one side of the body.
It is the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer, with close to 60,000 deaths every year and an annual cost to the NHS of more than £2.3 billion. But many patients can recover from strokes – and regain the use of their bodies – with therapy which helps other parts of the brain take over the lost functions. Since the opening of a specialist unit at the Royal Free four years ago, the mortality rate among stroke patients at the hospital has been halved and is now a third less than the national average.
Dr Sheldon Stone, stroke physician and a consultant in health services for elderly people at the hospital, said there were two main reasons for the hospital’s success.
He said: “One is because we get patients in the stroke unit so rapidly. The other is a team approach. At the Royal Free, all stroke patients are moved to the acute unit within 24 to 48 hours of being admitted, meaning they can get the specialist multi-disciplinary care they need.”
While some patients go straight home from the acute unit, others are transferred to Queen Mary’s House, in East Heath Road, which is another part of the hospital, for more rehabilitation, which is where the team approach comes into play.
Cherry Kilbride, deputy head of therapy services, said: “Many stroke patients have very complex needs and the skills of one individual cannot address all of them. All the staff have profession-specific skills but by working closely together as we do, we learn other skills from each other.”
Among the staff on hand for the patients are co-ordinators, occupational therapist, dieticians, pharmacists, social workers, clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists – as well as the doctors and nurses usually involved in the treatment.
Sacha Percy, an occupational therapist at Queen Mary’s, said: “The transition between the acute and rehabilitation units just works so well. We are all constantly aware what other team members are doing with a patient and we have a joint vision of where we want them to go.”
One person who has benefited from the Royal Free’s approach is Ernie Beale, from Belsize Grove, who was admitted in January 2004, after suffering a stroke at the age of 52.
He said: “The team were very good. I was in Queen Mary’s for eight months in which time they got me to walk in a special splint. Even Dr Stone couldn’t believe my progress after a few weeks.
“I am still in a wheelchair most of the time but without the treatment at Queen Mary’s I don’t know if I would have got this far.”