What the longest wait was for a brain scan in 2016-17 for a patient diagnosed with a stroke, broken down by NHS board.

In 2016 the Scottish Stroke Care Standard for brain scanning was made more challenging – 95%, rather than 90%, of patients to have a brain scan within 24 hours of admission. In 2016, 93% of patients across Scotland with a final diagnosis of stroke had a brain scan within 24 hours compared with 91% in 2015, a statistically significant improvement.
For 2016, the latest full year currently published in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Annual Report for 2017, the maximum time in days between admission and brain scan is shown in the following table, for each NHS Board.
All NHS Boards have exception reporting processes in place which highlight patients who do not meet the required standard. These patients’ pathways are actively reviewed by the stroke teams in each NHS Board to ascertain why they did not meet the standard. Where patterns emerge improvement action plans are put in place and changes made to improve delivery of this aspect of stroke care for all patients. Through this exception reporting data capture and analysis limitations which can cause anomalies in the data are also identified, and work progresses to address and correct these.
The table also includes the 90th percentile, in hours, which shows that 90% of confirmed strokes within Scotland received a brain scan within 21.5 hours, a measure that reflects the experience of the majority of patients with confirmed strokes in each NHS Board.
Table 1
NHS board of admitting hospital
Number of confirmed
strokes
Maximum time between admission and brain scan (days)
90th percentile time between admission and brain scan (hours)

Scotland
9 357
79.6
21.5

Ayrshire & Arran
844
6.8
23.3
Borders
222
1.1
15.5
Dumfries & Galloway
240
2.8
22.9
Fife
665
13.8
18.8
Forth Valley
521
4.9
20.6
Grampian
805
62.2
17.0
Greater Glasgow & Clyde
2 362
31.9
19.7
Highland
466
20.4
19.8
Lanarkshire
962
14.8
22.7
Lothian
1 454
79.6
19.8
Orkney
36
20.1
22.5
Shetland
41
2.7
19.8
Tayside
710
56.0
24.6
Western Isles
29
1.0
19.2
Table 2
NHS board of residence
Number of confirmed
strokes
Maximum time between admission and brain scan (days)
90th percentile time between admission and brain scan (hours)

Total
9 357
79.6
21.5

Ayrshire & Arran
847
6.8
23.3
Borders
238
5.9
16.2
Dumfries & Galloway
234
2.8
22.8
Fife
727
13.8
20.1
Forth Valley
507
4.9
20.5
Grampian
777
52.1
17.3
Greater Glasgow & Clyde
2 088
31.9
19.5
Highland
547
20.4
20.5
Lanarkshire
1 039
14.8
22.3
Lothian
1 370
79.6
19.7
Orkney
35
20.1
22.6
Shetland
37
2.7
20.0
Tayside
639
56.0
24.3
Western Isles
28
1.0
19.5

Outside Scotland/Not Known/ Other
244
62.2
20.3
Background Information
Tables 1 and 2 above are based on data drawn from eSSCA, the Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) data collection system.
The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Annual Report for 2017 was published on 11 July 2017 and is available at available at http://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/Publications/Main.html.
Data in the annual report were extracted from eSSCA during March 2017. The data in Table 1 above were extracted during July 2017 and are, therefore, more up-to-date than the published data. Differences are minor but eSSCA will have changed slightly in the interim as a result of routine day-to-day data processing.
Confirmed stroke is based on final diagnosis. eSSCA also collects information on initial diagnosis, where a patient may be suspected of having had a stroke.
A small proportion of patients may have had their stroke whilst already admitted to hospital for another reason. For these patients, measurement of the time to their brain scan will start from their symptom onset date/time rather than their admission date/time.
The question requests NHS board. SSCA data can be assigned to the NHS board of the hospital treating the patient or the NHS board of the patient, based on th