Life saving programme prompts FAST response
Thursday, 24 February, 2011
Welsh Ambulance Service crews are providing a FAST response to stroke patients as part of a national commitment to a programme seeking to improve the quality of patient care and reduce avoidable harm in NHS Wales
The Trust is signed up to the 1000 Lives Plus programme which is committed to introducing new ways of working to improve care by reducing harm, waste and variation. It is also committed to accelerating the pace of change to ensure good practice is spread from ward to ward, practice to practice and organisation to organisation.
1000 Lives Plus is currently implementing fourteen programme areas. One of which includes improving stroke services
The Trust has initiated an educational drive to ensure that all crews use FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) to gauge symptoms, including facial weakness, inability to raise both arms and whether somebody can speak or understand what is being said.
The FAST consists of 3 items (facial weakness, arm weakness, and speech disturbance) but avoids the need for the patient to repeat a sentence as a measure of speech. Instead, the language fluency and clarity are assessed by the paramedic / EMT during conversation with the patient.
Trust 1000 Lives Plus Co-ordinator Chris Powell said: "As part of our commitment to the programme we have ensured that FAST is used by all ambulance crews to assess and handover patients who may have suffered a stroke or trans ischaemic attack (TIA). FAST is now common practice for paramedic assessment of a potential stroke. "
