We are focused on delivering a clinically relevant, patient centred quality improvement programme for our local stroke and neurorehabilitation pathways of care. Given the ongoing financial challenges in health and social care, we have shifted emphasis to improvements that are cost saving or neutral, or require limited new resource. The “low hanging fruit” often centres on upskilling and training staff, improving communication and information sharing between teams and/or patients or adapting ways of work to improve efficiency.
Our portfolio of projects is diverse and covers the whole patient journey for stroke as well as community and longer-term support for neurorehabilitation.
To find out more about our projects or their impacts, get in touch with the relevant Facilitator who will be happy to provide further information.
Active projects (updated February 2025)
We have a number of paused projects that are part of wider work led by the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board e.g. wheelchairs, seating, splinting, lycra & orthotics. It is likely these will resume when the system is ready to move forward.
Note: Hannah Jones will be on maternity leave from 6th March and her projects will be picked up by Gemma Smith who returns from maternity leave on 29th April.
| Project title | Objective(s) | Facilitator | Reports to | Projected end date |
| CVD prevention | ||||
| Atrial Fibrillation (AF) monitoring: ePatch pilot | Support pilot of ECG devices in Stepping Hill HASU to monitor for AF in stroke/TIA patients | Chris Ashton | Stroke Inpatient & Community Forum | 31/03/25 |
| GP toolkit | Develop a toolkit to support greater understanding of stroke/TIA management | Sarah Rickard | Stroke Inpatient & Community Forum | 31/03/25 |
| Urgent care | ||||
| Imaging | Support implementation of national imaging pathway for stroke including roll out of CT Perfusion for IAT and IVT at HASUs | Chris Ashton | HASU Forum | 31/09/25 |
| Thrombolysis | Improve intervention rates at GM HASUs and implement tenectoplase | Chris Ashton | HASU Forum | 31/06/25 |
| Thrombectomy | Support implementation of outcomes of J&J IAT pathway review and NW Rapid Review of IAT | Chris Ashton | HASU Forum | 31/06/25 |
| Acute care | ||||
| In-reach | Improve equity of in reach/outreach processes in neurorehabilitation services to facilitate patient flow and seamless transfer from inpatient to community teams | Hannah Jones | NR Inpatient & Community Forum, Stroke Inpatient & Community Forum |
31/03/25 |
| Patient Pass | Implement online system to improve stroke referral management across system | Chris Ashton | Stroke Inpatient & Community Forum | 31/03/25 |
| WWL stroke pathway | Support WWL to improve patient flow and access to inpatient rehabilitation | Sarah Rickard | Board | 30/09/25 |
| MFT stroke pathway | Support MFT in developing its stroke service across the Trust, improving access to stroke care for patients at Wythenshawe | Sarah Rickard | Board | 31/12/25 |
| Rehabilitation | ||||
| Cardiorespiratory training | Support implementation of the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke recommendation to improve health and reduce the risk of secondary CVD. | Hannah Jones/Cillian O’Briain | Rehabilitation Subgroup | 31/3/25 |
| Facial rehabilitation | Improve access to appropriate services in GM. Scope extent of project | Farheen Akhtar | Rehabilitation Subgroup | tbc |
| Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) | Improve equity of access to community services. Upskill GM workforce. Audit services to inform future improvement work | Hannah Jones | NR Inpatient & Community Forum | 31/09/25 |
| Increasing intensity and frequency of rehabilitation | Support teams in delivering increased rehabilitation through: digital health technologies, accessing community/voluntary sector, workforce/training & education, self management, semi supervised practice | Cillian O’Briain | Rehabilitation Subgroup | 31/12/25 |
| Motor Neurone Disease (MND) emotional wellbeing project | Follow on project focusing on exploring and enhancing emotional wellbeing pathways for MND | Cillian O’Briain | MND Steering Group | 01/12/26 |
| Multiple Sclerosis (MS) pathway development | Support improvements in GM MS pathway | Cillian O’Briain | MS Steering Group | 31/3/26 |
| Neurogenic Bladder and Bowel | Support the implementation of a neurogenic bladder and bowel pathway in GM. Coloplast to provide an in house nurse based at Salford Royal to advise and educate incontinence teams. | Cillian O’Briain | NR Inpatient & Community Forum | 31/03/25 |
| Oral suctioning | Work at GM level to ensure equitable access for patients in community | Cillian O’Briain | CNRT Forum | 30/06/25 |
| Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest | Establish a model of care for patients presenting with hypoxia following cardiac arrest in GM. | Hannah Jones | NR Inpatient & Community Forum | 31/03/25 |
| Spasticity | Develop a robust, equitable pathway ensuring coordinated multi-disciplinary community spasticity services for all stroke/neuro patients. Support spasticity training and education of the GM workforce. Support the effective use of advanced roles | Chris Ashton | Rehabilitation Subgroup | 31/03/25 |
| Specialist equipment provision | Improve the GM specialist equipment provision pathways to create equitable access across localities | Cillian O’Briain | Rehabilitation Subgroup | 31/09/25 |
| Vestibular rehabilitation | Map current pathways across GM and identify service gaps. Develop a GM model for neurological vestibular service provision. Ensure workforce is appropriately competent to deliver assessment and rehabilitation. | Farheen Akhtar | Rehabilitation Subgroup | 31/03/25 |
| Workforce development | Coordinate Trust led introductory training for new staff. Develop a GM standardised introductory NR study day. Develop resources to support training and education of staff including posters and eLearning packages | Farheen Akhtar & Amanda Fish | Workforce Development Subgroup | Ongoing |
| Longer Term Support | ||||
| Longer Term Support: Stroke | Support implementation of the Integrated Life After Stroke Support model across GM. | Hannah Jones | Stroke Inpatient & Community Forum | 30/06/25 |
| Longer Term Support: Neuro | Develop a model of longer term support for neurologically impaired patient across GM. Support implementation of model across GM. | Hannah Jones | NR Inpatient & Community Forum | 30/06/25 |
| Patient & Carer involvement | ||||
| Empowering patients and carers | Empower people with Lived Experience to have increased influence over the work of the network | Sarah Rickard | Patient & Carer Group | Ongoing |
| Equip the network | Equip the network to be better able to work to best practice involvement methods, which involve patients and carers in the right way at the right time | Sarah Rickard | Patient & Carer Group | 31/1/25 |
| Build capacity | Build capacity for involvement so that the network can sustain and grow its patient and carer involvement offer | Sarah Rickard | Patient & Carer Group | 31/1/25 |
Impacts of our projects
It is important that our projects make a difference to the lives of patients and their families. Each project includes a range of measures that help determine their outcomes, outputs and impacts.
A summary of our more recently completed projects is below, with further examples highlighted in our annual reports. A more detailed description of all projects completed since 2022 can be downloaded on a spreadsheet.
Recent project impacts include:
- Advanced Clinical Practitioners – raised awareness and supported development of new roles in teams. Developed toolkit and facilitate ongoing Community of Practice.
- Emotional wellbeing & psychological rehabilitation – developed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) programme with follow up support attended by 80 clinicians. Scoped practice in all community and inpatient stroke/neuro services. Support NW Community of Practice.
- Integrated Life After Stroke Service – supported pilot in North Manchester
- Stroke driving pathway – updated and relaunched existing pathway in collaboration with our Patient & Carer Group
- Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) closure – updated our website with information to enhance referrals and facilitated webinar by service lead
- My Stroke – worked closely with our Patient & Carer Group to update our personalised discharge document and roll out again in stroke units
- Transient Ischaemic Attack – developed toolkit for stroke teams to improve and standardise practice