Stepping Hill Hospital’s stroke staff are part of an innovative project which has been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious national British Medical Journal (BMJ) Awards.
They are up for the Stroke and Cardiovascular Award for their part in delivering a new care package to improve care for stroke patients.
Known as the Acute Bundle of Care for IntraCerebral Haemorrhage (ABC-ICH) project, the initiative began in 2017 and involves the hyperacute stroke centres across Greater Manchester; which are Stepping Hill Hospital, Salford Royal Hospital, and Fairfield Hospital in Bury.
The bundle helps to improve care by applying rapidly reversing blood thinning drugs (anticoagulants), lowering patients’ blood pressure in the emergency department, and ensuring that the patients in need of neurosurgery are taken there as quickly as possible.
Since the care bundle and its supporting app have been implemented, two lives have been saved in Greater Manchester every month.
Dr Appukuttan Suman, Clinical lead for the project at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust said “The project has been a hugely useful tool in helping us to ensuring the very swiftest, timeliest and best standards of care for our stroke patients, both here at Stepping Hill Hospital and for our colleagues in Salford and Bury.”
Dr Srinath Meadipudi Clinical Director for the trust’s stroke services said “We’re very honoured to see this achievement acknowledged by the British Medical Journal and is testimonial to the excellent quality improvement work undertaken by the clinical staff in our organisation. ”
The BMJ Award winners will be announced in London on Wednesday April 24th .