Hiqa backs stroke therapy treatment

The health watchdog has recommended establishing a national emergency service providing next generation stroke therapy which has been shown to help some patients regain greater functional independence.

The treatment would be provided at two hospital sites — Cork University Hospital and Beaumont Hospital in Dublin — and would be in addition to thrombolysis (clot-busting) treatment, the standard medical care for stroke.

Máirín Ryan, HIQA’s director of technology assessment, said the treatment, known as endovascular treatment with mechanical thrombectomy, could only be conducted in hospitals that provide neurosurgery and neuro-critical care, as is the case in Cork and Beaumont.