Over the last few months, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS FT and Airedale NHS FT have been working together to develop and further improve stroke care between the two hospitals. 

The stroke service vision is for the executive and operational stroke teams from both sites to work together, in partnership with our CCGs, to review and improve the service, driving forward performance and making quality improvements. 

Over recent months huge progress has been made that the teams are immensely proud of.  Some of the work has included:

• A joint nursing recruitment event held to promote the option of rotation between the two hospitals.  Staff from the medical, therapy and nursing teams have undertaken shifts at each other’s sites and have had the opportunity to share lots of good practice.
• Training and development opportunities have been offered to the teams from both sites and the option to host some of these via video conferencing is currently being explored.
• The teams have established a stroke project board and operational group with single reporting mechanisms to support the governance arrangements.  The teams have jointly developed a patient survey as well as a newsletter with plans afoot to host a stroke study day. 
• Considerable work has also taken place on coordinating the stroke pathways to ensure there is shared resource and standardised processes where possible. 
• The teams are working on mapping the early support discharge (ESD) provision across both sites as well as working together to drive the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) audit performance.
• Digital solutions are also being explored with work taking place on a single SSNAP dashboard; devising a single IT stroke template that reduces duplications, offers meetings via videoconference and the possibility of using telemedicine for some ESD patients via a patient engagement app. 

The exciting next steps for the project are to explore the options of a single management model for the stroke service and continue to embed the excellent working relationships that are helping to drive improvements.

For more information contact Sayma Mirza, Head of Collaboration, Sayma.mirza@anhst.nhs.uk or phone 292419.