What’s the difference between a stroke and a heart attack? To the victim and his family, probably not a lot. But to the doctor, it’s considered a low priority, even though it can be every much a killer as a heart attack.
Every year around 110,000 people suffer a stroke in the UK, and a quarter of these are among people who are under the age of 65. It kills several thousand people a year, and, in all, about 300,000 Britons have a moderate to severe disability following a stroke.
Despite this, doctors and hospitals treat it as a low priority. It doesn’t warrant an emergency call-out, there is no special care available to the victim when he eventually gets to the hospital, and he isn’t always seen quickly.
This relaxed view of an acute problem has been criticised by a group of MPs, who want stroke to be treated as an emergency condition with special care units established.
As a spokesman for the Stroke Association said: “For far too long stroke has been a low priority for the National Health Service, resulting in needless death and disability for many thousands of people.”
(Source: British Medical Journal, 2006; 333: 111).