EDITOR'S CHOICE VOTE Do you think motorists should be booked for playing their music too loudly? Click here to vote. We have a fantastic array of hot deals, cruises, day trips and sporting breaks run by our friendly staff at the Reader Travel Office. YOU SAY: YOUR LETTERS Memorial move sounds like a ‘done deal’ Thanks for your confidence Working flat out to help residents Support over 12 years welcomed Travellers live in peace outside the rat race NEWS FROM RAMSBOTTOM, TOTTINGTON AND DISTRICT Lottery boost for park anniversary Sale of plants Locally-grown produce Bangers and crash for racing friends! GET OUR NEWS BY E-MAIL Just register

Most read Comments 1 Fire on Radcliffe trading estate 2 Teenage girl trapped in child's swing seat 3 Camera system will target car crimes 4 New health centres will offer out of hours cover 5 Restaurant backs water campaign 6 Prestwich houses searched by anti-terror police 7 Doris bows out after 34 years 8 Railway up for tourism award 9 Company reunion date change 10 Take care with fires and barbecues Today | 7 Days 1 Change to driving lessons on its way 2 New National Travel Passes in the post 3 New hope for Iraqi in fight to stay in UK 4 Motorway middle lane hoggers blasted 5 Teenage girl trapped in child's swing seat 6 Bank raider escapes with £5,000 7 Travellers live in peace outside the rat race 8 Family barbecue to raise football club funds 9 Town mourns former college head 10 Vaccination vital in our multi-cultural society

Comment | Read Comments (1)

STROKE patients in Bury will get faster access to urgent hospital care under plans for a new specialist unit at Fairfield Hospital.

Patients can expect to be diagnosed and treated more quickly at the new unit - one of three to be created across Greater Manchester.

A comprehensive 24-hour unit will be built at Salford Royal. Two further units - at Fairfield in Bury and at Stepping Hill in Stockport - will be smaller and will open only during peak times on weekdays but they are expected to significantly speed up treatment, saving up to 125 lives a year.

John Jesky, chairman of Pennine Acute Trust, which runs Fairfield Hospital, said: "The move to establish the stroke unit at Fairfield General Hospital as a specialist centre in the region's new integrated service reflects the exceptionally high quality of care that Dr Khalil Kawafi and his team are providing to all patients.

"The quality of this care has already been recognised by the National Stroke Sentinel Audit, which in 2006 placed Fairfield top in the North-West Strategic Health Authority and third in the country."

All three centres will care for patients during the first 24 hours after a stroke and will provide thrombolysis - a clot-busting treatment currently available only at Salford Royal and Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI).

There are two types of stroke - ischemic and hemorrhagic. Thrombolysis can only be used to treat the former, and only within the first three hours, so it is important to get a patient to hospital for a CT scan as quickly as possible to identify the type of stroke and the appropriate treatment.

The Association of Greater Manchester Primary Care Trusts, a partnership of the ten PCTs that run health services across Greater Manchester, aims to phase in use of the new units over the next 12 months.

It will launch an information campaign at the same time in a bid to raise public awareness of the symptoms of stroke and the need to contact emergency services immediately. Stroke is the third biggest cause of death in the UK and affects up to 12,000 people a year in the North West.

David Chaytor MP, who raised Fairfield's bid for the specialist stroke unit at Prime Minister's Questions last month, welcomed the news.

He said: "This is excellent news for my constituency and for the future of Fairfield Hospital. It proves that smaller hospitals can develop new specialisms and establish themselves as centres of excellence. I'm confident that this decision will lead to much greater understanding of the crucial importance of early response for stroke victims."

He added: "I'm also confident that this will be the first of many decisions that will make clear that Fairfield Hospital will increasingly become an important centre for medicine, serving not just Bury and Rochdale but Greater Manchester as a whole."

3:10pm Friday 9th May 2008

Print

Email this

Comment

Add your comment

Name:
Email: *
Location:
**
	e.g. 123-123
Comment: Please note: All HTML tags will be ignored. Format Text:
By posting a comment, I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms of use. Comments are not moderated but we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention and we may delete inappropriate postings. Please treat other people with respect. You must not post anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory. Remember, you are personally liable for what you post on this site. If you wish to complain about a comment, contact us here.
* Your email address will not be displayed ** To avoid register now or login