Department of Health
Friday, 9 August, 2019

Stroke is a major health issue in Northern Ireland with around 2,800 people being admitted to hospital each year and 36,000 stroke survivors living in our communities.

The College thinks that the most effective emergency treatment for new acute stroke cases is mechanical thrombectomy. However, there are not enough interventional radiologists to perform this in the UK. Currently radiologists are the only type of doctor who performs mechanical thrombectomy in the UK/Northern Ireland, in contrast to Europe and USA.

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