Life-saving services for stroke victims lacking

NORTH Tyneside man's death has highlighted a worrying lack of lifesaving stroke services out-of-hours, a coroner has warned.

- SAM VOLPE Health Reporter

Keith Reynolds died last November following a stroke while undergoing heart surgery at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

Writing in a formal prevention of future deaths (PFD) notice issued following an inquest, assistant coroner Thomas Crookes highlighted issues that there was no “mechanical thrombectomy” service available in the North East outside of working hours. By comparison, in parts of London that service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mechanical thrombectomy allows doctors to remove a blood clot from an artery through a catheter. But, as the inquest heard, it is not available in the North East outside of 9am to 5pm “due to insufficient neuroradiologists being available to run such a service’, an issue previously raised by Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust to NHS England.

In Mr Reynolds’ case, the coroner heard this would not have saved him ~ but he has now formally written to the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust and NHS England to raise concerns that this could see others die preventable deaths in future.

Mr Reynolds - who had a history of heart disease - had been admitted to hospital that October with symptoms of “unstable angina” He required coronary artery bypass surgery, Mr Crookes found.