Halving the “door to needle” time in providing a vital life-saving anti-clotting injection, scooped our Thrombolysis Team a Four Pillars award.

It means we are now so good we are the second-best in the region for this area of care – after Leeds.

They did it through close working with our paramedics, and stroke teams as well as radiology.

They introduced a bleep system to overcome the time delay between the patient arriving and the CT scan then being completed.

The bleep alerts the radiology department a thrombolysis patient is arriving so they can be ready to complete the scan ASAP. The paramedics now ring the emergency phone alerting A&E about a potential thrombolysis patient.

A bleep also informs the stroke team (as well as radiology). This enabled the stroke team to meet patients at the door and take them straight to CT removing any delays.

Also new is the paramedic teams help us transfer to CT, removing any delays when porters are all busy.

The result is an improved pathway so we provide quick, suitable, appropriate care which without a doubt puts the patient first and improves patient outcomes.

Working as a multi-disciplinary team was essential and this meant support from A&E, YAS and the radiology dept. – without this the team could not have made the advances.

As a result the rating our Trust’s rating with the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme

(SSNAP) has improved from in 2014 from a scoring of D level to a level B in 2018.

SSNAP measures both the processes of care provided to stroke patients, as well as the structure of stroke services against evidence based standards.

The team is now second in the region (below Leeds) for our time of onset to thrombolysis.

Judges’ comments included: “ They are absolutely focussed on the result and providing the best possible care for patients.”