Each year 15,000 people in Scotland experience a stroke making it is the leading cause of adult disability.1 The management of patients with stroke is informed by large scale research studies and there is strong evidence to support the use of organised stroke care. This evidence needs to be consistently implemented in to clinical practice if the benefits are to be realized for individual patients. The national Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) sets out the standards expected of Health Boards. A component of the audit is the use of the ‘Stroke Bundle’ which aims to improve the processes of care delivery in order to improve patient outcomes. One aspect of the bundle is timely access to swallow screening for patients with suspected stroke. The aim of the project was to increase the proportion of patients receiving a swallow screen within 4 hours of admission to 100% by June 2016.
