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Stroke Services in Ireland
What is a stroke?
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| Take a look at the Irish Heart Foundation's STROKE ACTION website |
A stroke is an interruption of the blood supply to part of the brain. The term “stroke” comes from the fact that it usually happens without warning, “striking” the person from out of the blue. A stroke is caused by a blockage of an artery supplying blood to the brain (cerebral thrombosis) or a bleed into the brain from a burst blood vessel (cerebral haemhorrage). Irish Heart Foundation Council on Stroke
The impact of strokes in Ireland
- Stroke is the third biggest killer disease in Ireland – causing more deaths than breast cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer combined.
- 10,000 people will suffer a stroke in Ireland this year. Over 2,000 people will die.
- One in five people will have a stroke at some time in their life.
The Irish Heart Foundation’s Stroke Campaign
Since 1966, the Irish Heart Foundation has been working to reduce premature death and disability from stroke and heart disease
In 2009, the Irish Heart Foundation launched a 4-year advocacy campaign for better stroke services in Ireland. The Irish Heart Foundation understands that providing a high quality of national stroke services, co-ordinating prevention, hospital and community care would be cost neutral, or could even save the State money.
The campaign will strive to increase public and political awareness of stroke and the need for improved services. It will raise awareness of the warning signs of stroke and the need to treat stroke as a medical emergency through a FAST campaign (the FAST acronym refers to the main symptoms of stroke – Facial weakness, Arm weakness and Speech problems, along with the warning that it’s Time to call 999). The campaign will also provide information about strokes to patients and their families; assist in the development of nationwide network of support groups for stroke patients; and support the development of a Stroke Register.
The Irish Heart Foundation is asking people to join this campaign urging the Government to implement the measures that will eliminate avoidable death and disability from stroke. These measures are contained in the Irish Heart Foundation’s Stroke Manifesto.
Cost of Stroke in Ireland Report
In September 2010, the Irish Heart Foundation published the Cost of Stroke in Ireland Report - estimating the annual economic cost of stroke and transient ischaemic attack in Ireland.
The report compiled by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), with the help of some of Ireland’s foremost stroke care experts, reveals that the overall annual bill for stroke in Ireland could now exceed €1 billion.
Its findings show that an extra 750 stroke victims could be saved from death or lifelong dependency each year by acute service improvements that would actually save the taxpayer money.
Irish Heart Foundation Stroke Manifesto
On the 18th November 2009, as part of its stroke campaign, the Irish Heart Foundation launched its Stroke Manifesto – a 16 point plan to eliminate avoidable death and disability from stroke.
More than 18 months after the Irish Heart Foundation conducted the first national audit on stroke care there is still more than one avoidable death from stroke in Ireland every day, while thousands more are forced to live with disabilities that are unnecessarily severe or prolonged.
Read the Stroke Manifesto’s 16 recommendations for urgent action to overhaul stroke services.
IHF National Audit of Stroke Care – Report 2008
In April 2008, the Irish Heart Foundation published the first ever National Audit of Stroke Care in Ireland. The Audit was the country’s first official overview of stroke services in hospital and the community.
Its findings confirmed that services for stroke patients in Ireland were vastly inadequate and that people were dying or acquiring disabilities which, with better services, could have been avoided.
Early diagnosis and treatment for stroke patients can mean the difference between life and death or mild and severe disability for the rest of their lives. The Irish Heart Foundation recommends this audit cycle should be repeated every three years to monitor developments towards excellence in stroke care.
The Irish Heart Foundation National Audit of Stroke Care was carried out in association with the Department of Health & Children by a team of researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The team was lead by Professor Hannah McGee and Professor Desmond O’Neill.
Individual Audit Reports
Hospital Organisational Survey GP Survey Allied Health Professionals and Public Health Nurse Survey Patient and Carers Survey Nursing Home Survey Hospital Clinical Survey
