AN ADVERTISING campaign encouraging people suffering from a range of symptoms suggestive of stroke to seek immediate medical help has had a dramatic impact, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.
Preliminary results of an audit carried out by the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF), which funded the €1 million “Act Fast” campaign, has found there was a 30 per cent increase in the numbers of patients turning up for treatment of stroke at Beaumont and Connolly hospitals in Dublin in May and June.
There was also a 60 per cent increase in the numbers of stroke patients getting in on time to be assessed for their suitability for clot-busting drugs that must be given to the 20 per cent of patients who would benefit from them within a few hours of stroke onset if they are to be effective.
Chris Macey, the foundation’s head of advocacy, presented the figures at a meeting of the Oireachtas health committee which was considering a recent report on the cost of strokes in Ireland. It estimated the cost to exceed €1 billion a year.
Dr Joe Harbison, joint clinical lead of the HSE’s stroke programme, said he also believed the advertising campaign had dramatically increased the number of people getting to hospital on time.
The more people who are treated quickly, the more lives that can be saved. Disabilities among survivors can be reduced, lessening the costs in the long term of rehabilitation and long-term care.
Michael O’Shea, chief executive of the IHF, said it was well recognised that care in dedicated stroke units can reduce death and severe disability by 25 per cent. But only one in five or one in six stroke patients here get treated in a stroke unit compared to over 90 per cent in the UK. Just 178 out of about 8,000 people who suffered an acute stroke here in the 12 months to the end of March 2009 received thrombolysis or clot-busting treatment. This represented about 2 per cent of patients overall when 20 per cent could benefit.
“Without decisive action now, there will be a 50 per cent increase in the incidence of stroke and its overall cost to the economy over the next 10 years,” he said.
Dr Harbison said 19 hospitals now had stroke units compared to just one in 2006.