Stroke neglect - Life-saving treatment hit by red tape

The first three parts of a seven-part National Stroke Audit, commissioned by the Irish Heart Foundation, were published yesterday, presenting a frightening picture of our inadequacies in treating stroke victims.

Up to 9,000 people suffer a stroke annually and approximately 2,000 of those are fatal, which means that stroke is the third most common cause of death in Ireland. More people die each year as a result of stroke than the combined annual deaths from lung cancer, breast cancer and bowel cancer.

Tremendous advances have been made in this area of medicine with clot bursting drugs that can provide for a complete recovery, if administered within three hours. Yet there is only one stroke unit in the 37 public hospitals in the whole country, while just five other hospitals have partially developed units.