For Alun, under Option 106…
An ambulance takes Alun to Prince Philip Hospital Acute Medical Assessment Unit for an assessment, before being transferred for a CT scan. If a stroke is confirmed, thrombolysis treatment would start while in the scanning department. Alun would then be transferred to the 12/7 Stroke Unit at Prince Philip Hospital (12 hours a day, seven days a week).
If Alun hasn’t had a stroke, he will remain under the care of the medical team on Acute Medical Assessment Unit.
(*If patients self-present at the Minor Injuries Unit in Prince Philip Hospital, the staff activate the stroke call and will follow the same process as a patient arriving by ambulance.)
If Alun had a more serious stroke (with a large blood vessel occlusion, which is a type of stroke where blood flow to a main artery in the brain is interrupted) he would be taken by ambulance from Prince Philip Hospital, directly to the thrombectomy centre at Bristol or Cardiff. Thrombectomy can be used to treat these types of stroke. This care is provided regionally for Wales and south and western regions of England in Bristol and Cardiff.
Once the Bristol or Cardiff thrombectomy team assess Alun as fit to be discharged from their care, he will be transferred to Prince Philip Hospital, or directly home dependent on his recovery post thrombectomy.
If thrombectomy is not the right treatment for Alun, then he will be transferred to the 12/7 Stroke Unit at Prince Philip Hospital (12 hours a day, seven days a week) for stroke treatment. Alun may be able to be discharged home with support from the Early Supported Discharge and Community Integrated Stroke Team.