Blackburn with Darwen’s Specialist Community Stroke Service has been named as one of the best in the country.
The service has been rated as one of the 'best performing' and is classed in the top quarter of all stroke services by the Care Quality Commission, which regulates health and social care.
The review looked at the stroke pathway: the care that a stroke survivor receives on leaving hospital and recovering at home.
It included an assessment of how well the different partners worked together including the hospital, Council’s adult social care, and the Stroke Association.
The borough's stroke service incorporates the Community Stroke Team, which was set up just four years ago and has gone from strength to strength.
It is now consulted nationally on improving care and has reduced the length of hospital stays by eight days on average.
The team's services include supporting people on leaving hospital and those with longer term stroke problems at home.
It also provides specialist upper and a lower limb clinics, which are the only NHS funded ones of their type in the North West.
Dr Malcolm Ridgway, medical director at Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus, said: "This rating is fantastic news and endorses what we here in the borough knew already: our stroke service is something we can be proud of.
"The dedication and hard work of those in our team helps improve the quality of life for many people in this borough, reduces hospital stays and lessens the reoccurrence of stroke."
