BENGALURU: On the occasion of World Stroke Day (October 29), the National Institute of Mental Health Sciences (NIMHANS) proposed to the Health and Family Welfare Department a model of stroke intervention that will ensure that the patient receives care during the golden period (six hours).
Dr B N Gangadhar, Director, NIMHANS said, “We have placed an appeal to the department to work aggressively in bringing about a state-wide programme and in the future, even a national programme, to prevent stroke and also ensure early intervention. We have digital tools to aid the government in this process.”
Keeping NIMHANS as the central point geographically, the hub-and-spoke model includes a health centre — ideally a district hospital every 60km — that will coordinate with doctors in NIMHANS virtually to administer care when a stroke patient arrives.
“Several hospitals do not have the equipment or manual on what to do when a stroke patient arrives which is why they refer them to NIMHANS. A crucial part of the golden period is lost owing to the time involved in travel. District hospitals should ideally be able to administer the required care,” Dr Ashok, fellow specialising in stroke under the Department of Neurology told TNIE. “In this model, once the CT scan is done, the doctors will produce the reports on WhatsApp and any neurologist can advise if they should give medicines or conduct an angiogram if the clot is a big one,” he added.
NIMHANS released an acute stroke manual and stroke fact sheet in Kannada and English and an acute stroke green channel poster on Thursday. “What each person should do in their individual responsibility such as the resident doctor or nurse, what medicine to administer, etc are some of the guidelines in the manual,” he said.