The SLSR was set up by Professor Charles Wolfe to provide reliable information about the numbers of strokes occurring and the immediate and long term consequences of the disease, to assess the quality of stroke care, and to test new ways of providing care.

Since 1995, the SLSR has been recording and following up all first-ever strokes in people of all ages living in Lambeth and Southwark, inner city South London, a well-defined multi-ethnic population. Information has been collected on over 5,900 patients who are followed up at three months and annually after stroke, for life. Highlights of the study and its impact over the last 20 years are outlined below:

Stroke data helping to save lives

SLSR information was used by the National Audit Office in its damning 2005 report criticising the poor state of stroke care in England. The Department of Health then devised the National Strategy for Stroke, setting out how to improve the coordination and provision of care for people with stroke. As a result, stroke became a national health priority and the treatment and services for stroke patients began to improve.

SLSR data underpinned the highly successful 2010 reconfiguration of stroke services in London. This introduced a new system of directing patients in the first 72 hours after stroke to eight high quality Hyper-Acute Stroke Units, rather than to one of 30 hospitals in the capital. SLSR data was used to estimate of the number of people who can be expected to have a stroke and to model the most cost-effective way of delivering stroke treatment services, i.e. the number and allocation of Hyper-Acute and Acute Stroke Unit beds in London.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of this new system found an estimated 12% reduction in deaths of stroke patients at 90 days after a stroke – there were an estimated 168 fewer deaths from stroke in the first 21 months after the service was introduced. The evaluation also found that there was a reduction in median length of hospital stay, saving the NHS an estimated £811 per patient.