Strokes and heartattacks on the island seems to be a huge problem, the amount of people that die from heartattacks is also scary, as it seems to be 1-2 every day lately.
The Autonomous Region of Madeira records around 800 cases of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) per year, the Secretary of Health and Civil Protection said today, noting that 55% of patients are reported outside the “therapeutic window”.
“We still have 55% of patients who do not arrive [at the hospital] within the therapeutic window, at the time they should arrive. In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, where all places are 25 minutes away, it is unacceptable, it is impossible, and this has needs to be changed”, said Pedro Ramos, reinforcing that “the signaling of patients and communication to the hospital must be done quickly, in order to reach the therapeutic window.”
The official was speaking at the Escola Básica e Secundária Padre Manuel Álvares, in the municipality of Ribeira Brava, in the west of the island, as part of an awareness-raising action entitled “Minutes that can Save Lives”, as part of the celebrations of World Stroke Day, which was noted on Sunday.
Pedro Ramos explained that the Madeira Health Service (Sesaram) has a unit for treating acute and subacute stroke situations with 20 beds and has “professionals with training and differentiation”.
The region also has complementary means of specific diagnosis and therapy and a clinical simulation center.
“The reliability of our system is so great that we treat not only patients from Madeira, but also patients from the Azores”, he said, highlighting that 70% of total cases are treated in the stroke unit.
The regional secretary for Health and Civil Protection highlighted, however, that more work was needed to flag cases and communicate them to doctors.
“Speed is linked to the success of our response”, he highlighted.