East of England Ambulance Trust ambulances work out out of the Norwich office in Hellesdon. PHOTO BY SIMON FINLAY
Adam Gretton Health correspondent adam.gretton@archant.co.uk Thursday, August 1, 2013 6:30 AM
A MP said response times to stroke patients in Norfolk and Suffolk were still totally unacceptable, despite the regions ambulance service hitting its target for the first time in 14 months.
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The East of England Ambulance Service is meant to get at least 56pc of patients suffering from a suspected stroke to a hospital within 60 minutes.
Board members of the NHS trust yesterday welcomed the news that 58.8pc of stroke patients across the six counties it serves received thrombolysis treatment at an acute stroke centre within 60 minutes of making a 999 call during the month of May.
However, in the first quarter of 2013/14, the ambulance services stroke 60 performance was 51.8pc and a breakdown of the figures for Norfolk and Suffolk show that only 43.5pc of patients were taken to a hospital within the hour target.
Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk and health minister, yesterday said improving responses to stroke patients needed to be one of the ambulance trusts top priorities.
It is incredibly important that this is addressed. It is a matter of life and death and we know that the chances of making a full recovery is increased significantly because of getting treatment quickly. The figures suggest an improvement, but the performance for Norfolk and Suffolk remains totally unacceptable and demonstrate we have a long way to go. We can not fix it overnight and it is crucial that it is a priority, he said.
A breakdown of stroke responses by Clinical Commissioning Group area reveal huge differences in stroke 60 performance in Norfolk with a figure of 55pc in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, 45pc in West Norfolk, 43pc in Norwich, 30pc in South Norfolk and only 8pc in North Norfolk during a seven month period.
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Ambulance trust stroke response ‘unacceptable’, says MP