Overall care in Northern Ireland stroke units has improved by 12% since 2006.

Andrew Dougal, Chief Executive Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke (NICHS) said, "It is extremely pleasing that in Northern Ireland an average of 59% of stroke patients will spend more than 90% of their hospital stay in a stroke unit.

In each of the 8 performance indicators those admitted to a Stroke Unit do better on every count, e.g. twice as many patients in a stroke unit have mood assessed before discharge.

One hospital whose stroke unit was seen as a model for many years has dropped from the top 25% to the lowest 25%.

This is due to a combination of factors:

a. Stroke and elderly care beds were reduced from 36 to 24;

b. Many medical patients are being inappropriately allocated to the stroke unit. This may be caused by the pressure from targets in Accident & Emergency and in cancer cases;

c. In the past much disruption has been caused by building work. Another hospital in the same Trust has endured the same fall in performance (from top quartile to bottom quartile).

These clinical outcomes in no way reflect the ongoing dedication and commitment of the staff. It is due to extrinsic pressures.

Congratulations are due to Belfast City Hospital and Tyrone County Hospital for moving from the middle performance level to the top 25%.

The Erne Hospital has improved again. Its level of performance is exemplary and the staff of the stroke unit at the Erne Hospital are to be commended for their exceptionally high level of achievement, with 100% in 4 performance indicators and a score of 90% or more in 7 areas of care."