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Editorial commentary
Strokes happen round the clock, but why is stroke care worse on weekends and overnight?
  1. Anthony George Rudd1,
  2. Benjamin Bray2
  1. 1Stroke Unit, Guy's and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  2. 2Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Anthony George Rudd, Stroke Unit, Guy's and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Westminster Bridge Rd., London SE1 7EH, UK; Anthony.rudd{at}kcl.ac.uk

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2015-311887

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    Walk into a typical acute hospital on a weekend or overnight, and it feels like a very different place than on a weekday. Most laboratories, theatres and diagnostics run reduced services, the corridors are quiet, and you are more likely to see a doctor or nurse rushing to an emergency than walking the wards on consults or rounds. Strokes however do not happen only when the hospital is best prepared, with 6 in 10 strokes occurring overnight or on weekends.

    This discontinuity between the provision of healthcare across the working week and the presentation of stroke has raised concerns that patients admitted on weekends and …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

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