Stroke patients need quicker treatment

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A national medical conference in Sydney has been told that not enough is being done to ensure stroke patients are treated quickly.

New research shows that giving patients medical treatment in an ambulance and sending them to a hospital with a special stroke unit can significantly improve outcomes.

Denis Crimmins from Gosford and Wyong Hospitals on the New South Wales central coast says they have introduced a program which involves ambulance officers giving patients more aggressive treatment before they reach the hospital.

“When someone has a stroke they have a probably a 20 per cent chance of dying from the stroke or a 20 to 30 per cent chance of being left totally disabled,” he said.

“By giving this drug early on we can actually take patients with severe deficits and nearly bring them back to complete normality.”

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See your GP not the Emergency Ward – NSW Health

The New South Wales State Government has launched an advertising campaign aimed at reducing the pressure placed on hospital emergency departments.

The Government says the initiative has been designed in consultation with emergency department staff.

They hope the program will encourage people to seek treatment from their GP, for non-urgent medical conditions, so hospitals can give priority to people needing emergency care.

They have cited figures which show an 8 per cent rise in emergency department admissions with 2.3 million people attending emergency department in the past year.

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