The Stroke HIT gives an update on what they've done so far and their hopes for next year

Dr Phil Clatworthy, Dr Ann Sephton, Professor Mark Pietroni and Emily Dodd give an update on what the Stroke Health Integration Team – our newest HIT – has done so far and their hopes for the year ahead.

The Stroke Health Integration Team (HIT) is the newest of the HITs, having been formally approved in August 2017. So, this is less of a review and more a preview of our future plans. The HIT Directors are Phil Clatworthy, Ann Sephton and Mark Pietroni. We have five priorities we want to address:

• It’s better to prevent a stroke than to treat one
• Improving immediate (“hyperacute”) stroke treatment
• Improving recovery, care and support after stroke
• Supporting improvements through research
• Supporting improvements through training and education

The team brings together key stakeholders to develop local stroke prevention and care in a way that works effectively across the whole health and social care system to benefit patients and the public.

Our executive is integrated into and supports the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership stroke pathway review. This review will lead to the reorganisation of services to improve the care of those who have had or are at risk of having a stroke in the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire area.

The Stroke HIT has strong representation from people directly affected by stroke. They have assisted with drafting the outline business case for the Stroke Pathway Review and their involvement will be further strengthened with the recruitment of a peer director to lead the patient and public involvement (PPI) workstream.

The education and training workstream led by Jayne Weare has drafted an education and skills framework to define the skills required to deliver stroke care in the post-acute stroke pathway, and secured resources to deliver stroke training to support the pathway.

The research and evaluation workstream led by Dr Mary Cramp, University of the West of England, will be evaluating the agreed new stroke pathway once implemented and establishing a research and evaluation group to align the local stroke research strategy to health and social care commissioning priorities.

Emily Dodd is the HIT’s new co-ordinator and main contact ([email protected]). She will take forward the research ambitions of the HIT.

Finally, we’re planning a launch event for 15 November in collaboration with Rosetta Life and CircoMedia. We hope to see you there!