Modernisation Initiative
Stroke Services
Location: Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Lambeth Primary Care Trust , Southwark Primary Care Trust, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and NHS London
Grantholder: Sir Jonathan Michael (former) Chief Executive, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Award: £15,000,000
Start date: 01/11/2003
Project intentions: A major initiative to modernise health services in three key areas in Lambeth and Southwark, making improvements to kidney disease, sexual health and stroke services.
The stroke project has pioneered a number of services which are in line with the aspirations of the National Stroke Strategy. Key achievements include:
- Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has become one of the first Trusts in the UK to use telemedicine to diagnose and treat acute strokes in the home. This enables consultants to diagnose patients remotely and ensure that patients receive the appropriate treatment. In some cases patients may be eligible for the thrombolysis drug, which if given within three hours can reduce the damage caused by a stroke.
- A protocol for patient care has been agreed across all of the healthcare providers to help ensure that all patients get the same level of care.
- An early support discharge service involving a multi-disciplinary team – such as neuro-therapists and rehabilitation workers – means patients can get the care they need at home.
- Training for professionals working with stroke patients has been enhanced via a ‘stroke competency framework’.
- Patients have helped develop a range of resources to help train health and social care staff and other books and dvds give advice on dealing with the challenges of daily life following a stroke.
A £157,000 grant awarded by the Charity in February 2008 is supporting a stroke user involvement network beyond the lifetime of the Modernisation Initiative project. The network engages patients with service providers; it also gets people who have had a stroke involved in training health and social care staff and on board as peer supporters. The network is being managed by the Disability Advice Service Lambeth and Blackfriars settlement in partnership with Lambeth Primary Care Trust and Southwark Health and Social Care.
Learning from People who have had strokes – good practice guide and dvd
This film and good practice guide aims to raise awareness about strokes from the perspective of people who have had a stroke and of their carers. In the film, people share their personal stories and talk about their own care – what they knew before their stroke, what happened at the time of the stroke, how they were assessed, what helped with their recovery and returning to living at home.
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Download: Learning from People who have had strokes |
Watch the dvd by clicking on any of the links below:
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Introduction | |
When it happened |
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Explaining what happened | |
Before the stroke |
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Hospital care & preparing to go home | |
Back home - recovery |
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Impact on carers and family | |
What then? |
Stroke staff competencies (qualified and non-qualified staff)
These learning resources have been developed to be used with an individual learning plan or personal development plan. They allow the staff member and supervisor to select competencies and indicators that are relevant to their practice and put them into local team staff development and appraisal formats.
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Download: Stroke staff competencies (qualified staff) |
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Download: Stroke staff competencies (non-qualified staff) |
Good practice guide
This checklist for practitioners gives clear information about what to do when a stroke happens, looking after people following a stroke.
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Download: Good practice guide |
Stroke Patient handbook
The Stroke Patient Handbook has been piloted in stroke services across Lambeth and Southwark. The handbooks are given to patients from the onset of a stroke. They are designed to help patients keep a record of their care. In addition, they include information that explains what a stroke is and provide space to record details of medication, personal; healthcare plans and contact details of other organisations that can support stroke patients.
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Download: Stroke Patient handbook |
Having a stroke being a parent - dvd and book
The resources aim to provide those who have recently had a stroke with examples of how others have coped to give them the confidence to rebuild their lives. A stroke can change the things normally taken for granted such as communication, mobility, relationships and identity. The guide draws on the experiences of parents who have had a stroke and their families and is full of practical ideas and tips for dealing with the many challenges faced by parents and children living with stroke.
Copies are available to purchase from Connect at a price of £7.50. Order online at www.ukconnect.org or email: info@ukconnect.org.
General learning from the Modernisation Initiative
In the last few months of the Modernisation Initiative (for kidney disease, stroke and sexual health services), David Jones, Director of Grant Making met with Director Fran Woodard to find out what she felt has been the main challenges faced and general learning from the initiative.
Their discussion was recorded and transcribed to provide other clinicians, managers, policy makers and academics involved in health service change with some insights into a range of issues including working across cross organisational boundaries, the importance of effective reporting mechanisms and achieving sustainability.
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Download the conversation here |
Modernisation Initiative website
Broad information on the aims and achievements of the three streams of the Modernisation Initiative is available on the Charity's website, or you can see a more detailed synopsis of achievements on the project website (which will remain live until December 2008).
End of Life Care
Building on the success of the last three years, the Charity’s Trustees have earmarked a further £15 million to tackle three more areas of health service modernisation via the same approach. The first area to be identified will tackle issues around End of Life Care - involving the acute and primary care sector, as well as representatives of the care home sector and relevant charities. A further two areas will be identified for transformation by 2012 at a cost of £10 million. More here