Question reference: S5W-11521
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 26 September 2017
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 October 2017
Question
To ask the Scottish Government which hospitals are using intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) to reduce deep vein thrombosis in people who have had a stroke, and whether these hospitals hold data on the efficacy of IPC.
Answer
Our Stroke Improvement Plan (2014) sets out a comprehensive programme for further reducing the number of deaths from stroke and improving stroke treatment care.
The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the National Institute for Health and Care are Excellence (NICE) make recommendations based on best available evidence and recommend use of intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) to reduce the risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in immobile stroke patients. For these reasons, the appropriate provision of IPC was recognised within Priority 3 of the Scottish Government's Stroke Improvement Plan.
Since 2014, the Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) has been collecting and reporting information on the use of IPC in stroke units to monitor the proportion of patients who are unable to walk on admission who are offered IPC. In 2016, the number of people offered IPC was 43%, a significant increase from the 2015 figure of 30%.
However, it is recognised that there remains variation across Scotland and through the Scottish Stroke Care Improvement Programme we are encouraging local Quality Improvement projects to optimise the use of IPC in stroke units and several national workshops have been run to encourage appropriate use of IPC.
All stroke units in Scotland have access to the equipment and on line training in its use is available through the Stroke Training and Awareness Resources (STARS) website;(www.stroketraining.org).