120 patients have received a lifesaving procedure after our staff stepped up to provide a 24-hour, 7-day a week service.

In late October we expanded our mechanical thrombectomy service from six days a week to one that is 24/7 while The Royal London Hospital’s specialist machine was being replaced.

We’ve been treating patients from Kent, Suffolk and across the East of England in addition to patients referred to us locally.

When a patient has a stroke, a clot cuts off blood to the brain. In some cases, this can be removed quickly either with drugs or a procedure called a mechanical thrombectomy.

Specialist radiologists, known as ‘interventional neuroradiologists’, can then treat the precise location by guiding a device through blood vessels in the brain to make repairs and remove blockages.

We have carried out 120 mechanical thrombectomies from late October to Monday 27 January.

The service will go back to six days a week now that The Royal London Hospital has replaced their machine.

One patient, a teacher, had a stroke in November. He arrived at The Royal London Hospital for scans before being sent to us for a mechanical thrombectomy. He returned to The Royal London Hospital following the procedure.

Three days after his stroke, the patient was discharged home and he managed to thank us before he left. He will receive speech and language therapy in the community.

Mechanical thrombectomies are carried out by our interventional neuroradiology team, a service which treats patients for neurological conditions including stroke.

Elena Girip, a senior staff nurse, helps to prepare the room and the equipment for the operation and assists the radiologists during the procedure.

Elena said:

It was a challenge to step up our service but we knew our work made a difference in improving outcomes for patients. Our team put in extra hours and worked overtime to ensure patients got the best care possible.

We worked with many different teams to achieve this including the stroke and anaesthetic teams. This is very rewarding for all of us and we are all proud of what we have achieved.

Matthew Trainer, our CEO, said:

Our team has done amazing work. They set up the service in record time in October, took on a huge challenge, and have been able to provide excellent care for patients from Essex, Kent, Suffolk and the East of England, as well as London.

None of it would have been possible without the dedication of our clinical teams and the support of our operational managers. We are very proud of what they have achieved over the last few months, delivering life-saving care 24 hours a day.