Pune:  “Time is crucial while treating stroke patients and we need more stroke-ready hospitals,” said Dr Nasli Icchaporia, Director, Neurology at Sahyadri Super Speciality Hospital.

He said there is a need to design emergency departments to overcome delays and minimise the door to needle time.

He was delivering the keynote address at the National Convention on Emergency Medicine organised by Sahyadri Hospitals Pune, in association with Society for Emergency Medicine, India and Maharashtra Emergency Medical Services (108) at Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Viman Nagar. The theme of the two-day conference was ‘Being prepared makes the difference’. 

During the event, Sahyadri Hospital launched Rapid Action Stroke Care Centre at Deccan, Nagar Road and Hadapsar Units, which is a specialised centre dedicated to advanced diagnosis and treatment of stroke.

Leading neurosurgeon Dr Charudutt Apte, Chairman Sahyadri Group of Hospitals; Dr Jayshree Apte Director, Sahyadri Hospitals; Dr Sunil Rao, COO Sahyadri Hospitals; and Dr Deepa Divekar amongst others were present on the occasion.

“While a new dawn has arisen with Mechanical Thrombectomy (Stent Retrievers with which large vessels can be opened up), statistics show there is still a gap in intervention. So it is of utmost importance to  make hospitals stroke-ready,” said Dr Icchaporia. 

He said it can be done by streamlining pre-hospital management and reducing treatment delay. “The emergency departments should be designed to do streamlined choreography. The entire staff should be educated with signs and symptoms, blood sugar should be done in the ambulance on the way and emergency department should be sounded off so they keep the entire infrastructure ready. The role of telemedicine can prove beneficial,” said Dr Icchaporia.

Dr Sanjay Pawar said, “The aim is early recognition and management and making  the entire unit ready to handle the emergency.”