SCGH stroke unit internationally recognised
Pictured left to right: Dr Muhammad Zubair, Clinical Nurse Consultant Rebecca Reynolds, Clinical Nurse Specialist Roger Shreeve, Dr Daniel Putt, Dr Thomas Chemmanam and Prof David Blacker (seated).
We are delighted to announce that our Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Stroke Unit has received international recognition for meeting the highest standards in stroke treatment and care.
Stroke Unit Head of Department Dr Thomas Chemmanam and Neurology Head of Department Dr Janavi Dunuwille say that receiving the prestigious World Stroke Organisation (WSO) Angels Gold Status Award is a great honour and testament to the teamwork across different departments working together to create the best outcome for patients.
Stroke is a time-critical medical emergency and acting swiftly on the signs of stroke and implementing best practice care requires multidisciplinary coordinated teamwork involving paramedics, emergency department, diagnostic and interventional radiologists and stroke unit staff.
“Ensuring appropriate patients receive clot retrieval and clot busting therapies within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital door is the gold standard and means that more people will survive and live well after stroke,” Dr Chemmanam said.
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital currently treats approximately 1,100 strokes each year and serves as the main comprehensive stroke centre in Western Australia.
Endovascular clot retrieval treatment has been a major advancement in stroke treatment and is performed by highly trained interventional neuroradiologists in the Neurological Intervention and Imaging Service of Western Australia (NIISwa). In 2020, the team performed 335 clot retrievals.
To achieve WSO Gold Status a hospital must demonstrate a range of outcomes, including optimum time to treatment, coordinated care, appropriate scans and screening, and ensuring patients are discharged from hospital on medications to minimise the risk of further stroke.
This high-profile award is facilitated in Australia by the Australian Stroke Coalition (ASC) and is open to hospitals contributing data to the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry and Stroke Foundation National Stroke Audit.
Stroke Foundation Chief Executive Officer, and ASC Co-chair, Sharon McGowan said that despite the challenges faced by hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic it was “fantastic to see Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital among nine Australian hospitals meeting international benchmarks in stroke care”.
The Angels initiative (external site) is a partnership between the World Stroke Organisation, European Stroke Organisation and Boehringer Ingelheim, that aims to optimise the standard of treatment in stroke centres worldwide and improve patient outcomes by setting global benchmarks for best practice stroke care.
WSO Angels Award recipients for 2021 were announced at the Stroke Society of Australia annual scientific meeting on 15 October.