Treatment for stroke patients at the hospital should be much better after the donation of new equipment.

The Henry Bloom Noble Health and Care Trust (HBNHCT) has donated two MedStore carts.

They have been named ’Rothwell’ and ’Rudd’ after two pioneers in the field of stroke research, Professor Peter Rothwell and Professor Anthony Rudd.

About 200 people in the island suffer a stroke each year.

Around 10% of those will die as a result, while the majority survive with varying degrees of disability.

Key to their survival is often the earliest possible delivery of ’clot-busting’ drugs, a process known as thrombolysis.

The MedStore carts and iPads will be a vital element in the government’s £1/3 million programme to provide a 24/7 delivery of these drugs, which previously had been available only from 9am to 5pm.

Malcolm Clague, trustee for the HBNHCT, said: ’For patients presenting with symptoms of a stroke, time is of the essence. Thrombolysis needs to commence as soon as possible, and certainly within four and a half hours of the onset of symptoms, to improve outcomes.

’However it also needs very careful management. Thrombolysis disrupts the normal clotting mechanism to the whole body and is not without potentially significant and life-threatening complications for the patient.

’During working hours Dr Thomas, consultant physician with an interest in stroke, will make the decision to commence treatment and will supervise its administration by the specialist nurse.

’Out-of-hours, and at weekends, when Dr Thomas is not available, the plan is to link into the North West network of on-call stroke consultants for the medical input to this treatment.

’The stroke nurse will bring a MedStore cart with attached iPad to the patient and dial in the on-call consultant stroke physician in the North West.

’The physician will see the patient, through the camera on the iPad, and vice versa, and the patient and physician will be able to communicate with each other or through the nurse.

’The physician will have access to the CT Scan through a separate network link.

’He/she will assess the situation and, if deemed appropriate, obtain consent and authorise the treatment.’

The stroke team at the hospital looked at different hardware to connect to the network and decided that iPads were the least cumbersome, attached to the MedStore carts, which carry all the equipment and drugs required to treat one patient.

One of the carts will be positioned in the A&E department and the other on Ward 7 where it will be used to treat patients who have already been admitted for other conditions but later develop strokes.

Mr Clague said: ’Noble’s Hospital asked if the Trust would provide the two MedStore carts and iPads and we were very pleased to do so.’