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Stroke Programme

What we are doing

The Stroke Programme has been at the forefront of quality improvement programmes in stroke since 1996.

The programme measures the quality of the organisation and delivery of stroke care against the evidence-based standards that it sets in the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke (now encompassed within the NICE quality standards).

The Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme is managed at King’s College London and is the single source of stroke data in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Stroke Peer Review Scheme is run in partnership with the British Association of Stroke Physicians and the Stroke Association. The Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party (ICSWP) is made up of senior representatives from all the professional bodies involved in stroke care, as well as the voluntary sector and patient representation.

What we have produced

The 2023 edition of the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke for the UK and Ireland is now available. The guideline is endorsed for use in clinical practice by the RCP, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

The fifth edition of the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke was published in October 2016.
SSNAP aims to improve the quality of stroke care by auditing stroke services against evidence based standards, and national and local benchmarks.

The SSNAP programme would like to formally thank the many hundreds of individuals and organisations participating in SSNAP, without whose efforts SSNAP would not be possible.

Our aim is for SSNAP data to be used as widely as possible to improve the quality of care for people with stroke. 

The Royal College of Physicians has a number of resources to enable commissioners to make informed decisions about commissioning stroke services.