Picture source:- World Stroke Day 2022 | Different Strokes
The 29th October is globally recognised as World Stroke Day to highlight the serious nature and high rates of stroke cases across the globe.
The aim of the day is to raise awareness, promote prevention and encourage timely action to recognise symptoms quickly.
What is a Stroke?
A stroke occurs when brain cells are deprived of oxygen and nutrients. When blood stops flowing to parts of the brain it can cause confusion, memory loss, impact speech, movement and can take a long time to recover. However, people are more likely to make a more established recovery when treatment is received earlier.
Picture source: https://www.stroke.org.uk/world-stroke-day
The FAST protocol is designed to help the public and emergency responders quickly recognise the most common signs of a stroke, emphasizing that time is of the essence for treatment:
- Face: Has the person’s face dropped on one side? Can they smile, or has their mouth or eye drooped?
- Arms: Can the person raise both arms and keep them there? Does one arm drift downward due to weakness?
- Speech: Is their speech slurred, garbled, or otherwise unusual? Can they understand you and repeat a simple phrase?
- Time: Time to call 999 immediately if any of these signs are present.
Rapid recognition and immediate emergency action based on FAST symptoms are vital because treatments like thrombolysis (clot-busting drugs) are most effective, and often only administered, within a narrow window which is typically 4.5 hours from when symptoms first begin.
The Criticality of Time – Addressing Failures in NHS Stroke Treatment
Unfortunately cases pertaining to Stroke remains one of the UK’s leading causes of death and long-term disability. In the majority of cases, the outcome for a patient is directly dependent on the speed and accuracy of initial diagnosis and intervention, a concept often summarised by the phrase “Time is Brain.”
There have been several recent, high-profile reports and ongoing inquiries in the NHS regarding failures in stroke treatment, particularly concerning diagnosis delays and quality of care.
Here are the key findings and major recent inquiries:
- Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) Report (2025): The health ombudsman recently warned that failures in NHS stroke care are rising sharply. They reported a significant increase (a two-thirds rise over four years, between March 2021 and March 2025) in formal investigations into stroke-related care. The failures consistently identified include misdiagnosis, poor nursing care, and delays in treatment.
- Stroke Association Report (2024/2025): The Stroke Association released reports warning that NHS pressures and “deep inequalities in care” are “failing” stroke patients. They highlighted a “postcode lottery” for accessing life-saving treatments like thrombolysis (clot-busting drugs) and thrombectomy, with only 11.6% of eligible patients receiving thrombolysis in 2023/24, far below the estimated 20% who could benefit.
- National Clinical Guidelines Update (2023): The new National Clinical Guideline for Stroke (2023) was published to set new, higher, and more unified standards across the UK. This comprehensive update aims to address shortcomings in areas like organization of services, rapid access to imaging, and rehabilitation.
- Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) Data: Ongoing data from SSNAP for 2023/2024 showed that only 46.7% of patients were directly admitted to a specialist stroke unit within the critical four-hour window of arrival, indicating persistent delays in the pathway that could limit the effectiveness of acute treatment.
These reports collectively confirm that the problems like the systemic failures leading to misdiagnosis and delayed care, are subject to ongoing national inquiry and concern within the NHS.
Unfortunately, recent high-profile cases have highlighted significant, often tragic, failures within the National Health Service (NHS) to meet this critical standard of care. Our Clinical Negligence team are dealing with a number of claims arising from situations where people have suffered a stroke, an example of which is this case study.
If you believe that you or a family member have suffered substandard treatment and subsequent harm as a direct consequence of a medical professional, please contact our Medical Negligence Team at McHale & Co who will be happy to have a non-obligatory informal chat as to whether there are grounds to bring a potential claim for medical negligence. Feel free to call 0161 928 3484.
