We were pleased to welcome MPs to Queen’s Hospital to see how we are stepping up to provide stroke care to a population of 9.8 million people.

On Friday 8 November, Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, and Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, visited our stroke wards and interventional neuroradiology (a service which treats patients for neurological conditions including stroke). Our Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) is one of eight designated stroke units in London.

When someone has a stroke, a clot cuts off blood to the brain. This needs to be removed quickly either with drugs or an operation called a mechanical thrombectomy. Around 10% of stroke patients need this operation.

The team use a biplane machine which takes detailed X-ray images. This allows a radiologist to treat the precise location of disease, often by guiding a device through blood vessels to make repairs and remove blockages.

We are currently providing a 24-hour mechanical thrombectomy service, seven days a week from October until January. This covers patients from Kent and Medway, north & east London and the East of England. We’ve carried out 30 procedures so far.

This expanded service is to provide care for patients while the Royal London Hospital’s biplane machine is being replaced as we are one of a handful of centres to provide this specialist treatment. Before this we ran a six day a week service for patients in our local area.

The MPs also discussed the growth in stroke cases and how developing community services will be crucial in making sure all patients receive the lifesaving treatment they need.

Our Chief Executive Matthew Trainer said:

We are a busy stroke unit in London. This was a great opportunity to highlight to Andrew and Mark the exceptional standards of care that we deliver to stroke patients and to see how our staff have risen to the recent challenges.

Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, said: 

I was delighted to visit Queen’s Hospital as Romford’s MP and have the opportunity to see at firsthand the amazing stroke care service that is available.

It was so impressive to see how the dedicated team at BHRUT have changed their thrombectomy service to provide lifesaving operations for so many people. 

Lives of local Havering residents are being saved at Queen’s Hospital thanks to this service and I am so grateful for all they do in providing such amazing care at a time in someone’s life when it is needed most.