Stroke third leading cause of death in Ireland- NOCA

Stroke is the leading cause of acquired disability and the third leading cause of death in Ireland according to the Irish National Audit of Stroke National Report 2020 launched today by the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA). 

There are approximately 6000 strokes admitted to Irish hospitals per year – this report analysed data on 5,153 stroke patients. While stroke is looked upon as a disease of the older person, over a quarter of the cases were aged under 65 years. 57 per cent of all cases were male.

The report’s key findings included that the median time to contact with a doctor after arrival at hospital was 11 minutes, 6 minutes faster than in 2019. The median time from arrival at hospital to brain scan was 1 hour and 3 minutes, 17 minutes faster than in 2019.

Launching this year’s report, Professor Joe Harbison said “This years’ report is the largest and most complete we have produced in the last 10 years despite the challenges of compiling it during the Covid-19 pandemic. It shows continued improvement in some areas, especially in getting patients to urgent treatment faster. In other areas, such as admission to stroke units and provision of therapies, substantial room for improvements remain.”