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On-scene times during ambulance assessment of suspected stroke patients across England from December 2021 to November 2022
  1. Graham McClelland1,2,3,
  2. Hayley Stagg3,
  3. Lisa Shaw2,
  4. Tracy Finch1,
  5. Christopher Price2
  1. 1 Nursing, Midwifery and Health, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
  2. 2 Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  3. 3 North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Graham McClelland; graham.mcclelland{at}northumbria.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2024-213908

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    Ambulance crew’s main focus during stroke care is symptom recognition and rapid transport to specialist units to maximise access to and effectiveness of time-critical treatments. However, in England, ambulance on-scene times (OSTs) (from when the ambulance arrives at the patients’ location to when it leaves for the hospital) have increased in recent years1 and appear extended compared with international services.2 3 Increased OSTs contribute to deteriorating symptom onset to arrival at hospital times, which represents worse care for patients.4 In 2022, the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) stroke report5 recommended an OST of less than 30 min for English ambulance services. Data on OST with suspected stroke patients across a 12-month period were collected from all English ambulance services to compare against the GIRFT recommendation and to identify any overall trend in OST.

    Using a freedom of information request, the mean OST per month for all suspected stroke patients was requested from all 10 regional ambulance services in England6 for the time period December 2021 to November 2022. Cases included in the data provided were defined locally by each individual service. Monthly data …

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Aileen McCabe

    • X @mcclg

    • Presented at A poster based on this work was presented at the UK Stroke Forum in Birmingham in December 2023.

    • Contributors GMC devised and led the project and wrote the initial draft of the paper. HS supported data analysis. LS, TF and CP were involved in developing the project and data analysis. All authors contributed to the final draft of the paper, and all have seen the final submitted version. GMC acts as guarantor for this paper.

    • Funding This study was funded by a Stroke Association Postdoctoral Fellowship (Ref SA PDF 20\100001) awarded to the lead researcher (GMC).

    • Competing interests All authors were involved in a project led by GMC and funded by The Stroke Association to explore and reduce ambulance on-scene times in North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust during the time period described.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.