Northern Ireland made stroke thrombectomy a 24/7 service — a UK first
A £5m Stormont investment turned Northern Ireland's 08:00–17:00 regional thrombectomy service into a 24/7 pathway across eight hospitals — the first in the UK.
What was changed
Until 14 September 2026, Northern Ireland's regional thrombectomy service — the procedure that mechanically pulls clots out of the brain — operated only between 08:00 and 17:00. A £5m investment through Stormont's Programme for Government Elective Care funding has turned it into a 24 hours a day, seven days a week service. Health Minister Robbie Butler described it as a landmark moment: Northern Ireland is the first UK nation to provide a 24/7 thrombectomy service for its entire population.
The clinical logic is stark. Belfast Health Trust stroke consultant Dr Patricia Gordon says about 10% of stroke patients have a large clot that can be removed by thrombectomy; these are the most severe strokes, blocking major brain arteries. The procedure raises a patient's chances of a good recovery by more than 50% and reduces the risk of death by almost 20% — turning a 'very dependent state' into 'a nearly independent state again' if the clot comes out in time.
Delivery is a network design: the procedure is performed at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, fed by a regional pathway involving stroke teams at Causeway, Antrim Area, Royal Victoria, Ulster, Craigavon Area, Daisy Hill, Altnagelvin and South West Acute hospitals. Artificial-intelligence-supported imaging helps clinicians rapidly identify who may benefit. Gordon says the biggest lift is staffing: 'a huge amount of staff' is needed to fill 24/7 rotas. The commitment was first published in June 2022 in the Reshaping Stroke Care Action Plan.
The scale: about 3,000 people have a stroke in Northern Ireland each year — one every three hours — and more than 43,000 stroke survivors live in the community. The service will build capacity toward 300 thrombectomy procedures annually, about double what it was doing under reduced hours. Patient Gemma O'Hara, treated after a September 2025 brain stem stroke under the old hours, recovered well and calls it 'a miracle treatment' — but says her biggest fear had been another stroke at night, when thrombectomy was unavailable.
Why it worked
It removes a clock-based inequity in time-critical treatment: the same stroke at 3pm and at 3am now gets the same access.
The delivery model is a network play — one hub, eight hospitals feeding it — showing how a small region staffs a 24/7 specialty without eight copies of it.
The numbers are honest: capacity is stated as a build-toward target (300 a year, roughly double), not an inflated claim.
It shows a 2022 plan surviving to execution four years later, funded through a Programme for Government commitment rather than slipping.
What can be applied
Time-critical services can't close at 5pm: funding the rota to run all hours doubles capacity and removes the clock lottery in one decision.
Aftermath
The expanded service went live on 14 September 2026. Gordon says the stroke team has advocated for the expansion for some time and calls it transformational for patients; Butler frames it as one of the most significant advances in modern stroke medicine reaching every citizen. AI-supported imaging is already in use to speed patient identification along the eight-hospital pathway.