Our Stroke IMPaCT Roundtable, launched on 26th May last year, has continued to meet virtually to share knowledge and provide an overview of what’s happening in stroke care across the North West Coast.

Chaired by Programme Director and Chair of the Funding Committee for NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research Programme, Professor Jo Rycroft-Malone, the Roundtable brings together individuals with expertise in stroke care and/or implementation, and members of the public with lived experience of stroke services. Current membership includes;

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
Innovation Agency
Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System
Lancashire Teaching NHS Foundation Trust
National Clinical Lead for Stroke/Getting It Right First Time Stroke Programme Lead
NIHR ARC NWC Implementation Lead
NIHR ARC NWC Public Advisers
NIHR Clinical Research Network
Stroke Association
University of Central Lancashire.

A key element of the Roundtable is patient and public involvement. We have three ARC NWC Public Advisers as members of the Roundtable. In their role, they attend the meetings and contribute a patient, carer, and public voice to the discussions. With the ARC NWC Implementation team, they have recently supported the development of a Public Adviser role description that defines their roles and responsibilities as members of the Roundtable. This has also successfully led to the development of a Member Organisation role description. Our Public Advisers act as a link between the Roundtable and other key public involvement structures in the ARC NWC and beyond (e.g. ARC NWC Public Adviser Forum, newly appointed ARC NWC Theme Co-leads, Patient and Carer Assurance Group).

As we approach twelve months since the launch of the Stroke IMPaCT Roundtable, our achievements to date include;

We have brought together key organisations involved in the delivery, improvement, and research of stroke care in the North West Coast four times over the last year.

We have developed a Terms of Reference with defined objectives for the group, and role descriptions to outline roles and responsibilities of the membership.

We have completed a health inequalities assessment to ensure all activities are being viewed with a health equity lens.

Members have shared their experiences and expertise of stroke care, to shape the focus and key priorities of the Roundtable going forward.

We have had discussions on a variety of topics related to improving the delivery of care for stroke patients (e.g. quality improvement methods, accurately capturing patient experience, integrating care across an entire pathway, and the role of data in measuring improvement).

The Stroke IMPaCT Roundtable has been successful in bringing together individuals from organisations, and intends to have impact on patient care and outcomes at a strategic level.

We are currently working together to develop a way of mapping activities across in the North West Coast to facilitate knowledge exchange and identify any potential gaps. It is envisaged that this will be an accessible resource to reduce duplication of effort and support collaboration across the region. We are also beginning to develop links with other networks across the North West Coast (e.g. Integrated Stroke Delivery Networks, ARC NWC Care and Health Informatics Theme) to discuss and develop future research ideas to address the gaps we identify.