Northern Ireland first in UK to offer round-the-clock emergency stroke clot removal

Until recently, a stroke that struck at midnight in Northern Ireland carried a grimmer prognosis than one that struck at noon — not because the medicine was different, but because the specialist team to deliver it went home at 5pm. That changed on 14 September, when Northern Ireland quietly became the first part of the United Kingdom to run a 24/7 thrombectomy service for its entire population. On Tuesday, Health Minister Robbie Butler made it official with a visit to the Royal Victoria Hospital's Stroke Unit in Belfast.

This is a landmark moment for stroke care in Northern Ireland. We are leading the way as the first in the whole of the UK to provide a 24/7 thrombectomy service for our entire population.— Robbie Butler, Health Minister

The expansion — funded by a £5 million investment from the Stormont Executive's Programme for Government — ends a gap that had real consequences. The regional service previously ran from 8am to 5pm, seven days a week. Any patient admitted outside those hours had to wait until the following morning for treatment. The Stroke Association estimates someone has a stroke every three hours in Northern Ireland, a condition that caused 884 deaths in 2024 alone.

Thrombectomy works by removing the blood clot blocking an artery in the brain, restoring blood flow and enabling recovery of neurological function. According to current guidance, the procedure can be administered within four-and-a-half hours of a stroke, and the Stroke Association puts the share of stroke patients who could benefit at 20%. The logic of a time limit on the service was always uncomfortable: the treatment's value is measured in minutes, yet access to it was measured in office hours.

Stroke teams at Causeway, Antrim Area, Ulster, Craigavon Area, Daisy Hill, Altnagelvin and South West Acute hospitals feed into a regional pathway centred on the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where the service is based. Clinicians are aided by artificial intelligence-supported imaging to quickly determine which patients are suitable candidates, and the investment is also broadening specialist workforce capacity and providing support to the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.

Patients will now have timely access to life changing specialist treatment whenever a stroke occurs, improving care and outcomes.— Dr Patricia Gordon, Consultant Geriatric Medicine, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

Thrombectomy saves brains, saves money and saves lives. It is vital that anyone who needs it can have it, no matter when or where they have their stroke.— Alasdair O'Hara, Northern Ireland Director, Stroke Association

Northern Ireland's achievement throws into relief how far other parts of the UK still have to travel. The North East of England was, as recently as September last year, the only region in the country where thrombectomy was not available outside office hours, according to ChronicleLive. An assistant coroner raised the alarm in a prevention of future deaths notice issued in September 2025, following an inquest into the death of Keith Reynolds, who died after suffering a stroke during heart surgery. The coroner, Thomas Crookes, stated plainly that patients requiring thrombectomy outside 9am–5pm faced a risk of preventable death.

Should patients currently require a mechanical thrombectomy outside of the hours of 9am to 5pm, such a service would not be available to them and this could result in their death despite this potentially being preventable were such a service available.— Thomas Crookes, Assistant Coroner

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust's acting chief executive Rob Harrison, responding to the coroner's notice, revealed that the trust had submitted a proposal to NHS England in February 2025 for a 24/7 service covering an estimated 258 cases per year at an additional cost of £3.1 million — and received no response. He wrote that had the proposal been approved at a May 2025 meeting, the service could have been running by December 2025. It was not.

Since then, the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle has expanded its service from 8am to 8pm, and NHS England confirmed targeted funding in April 2026 to recruit the additional specialist staff needed for round-the-clock cover. A full 24/7 service is now expected by the end of 2026, according to ChronicleLive.

We are of course frustrated that the deadline for offering a 24/7 thrombectomy service has been missed by the government so we welcome the additional investment to expand the service. We hope the expansion will offer patients the same access as other areas in the UK, removing the postcode lottery.— Sam Jones, Associate Director for Yorkshire and the North East, Stroke Association

The Stroke Association's North East figure put the human stakes plainly: 40 people in the UK wake up to life after a stroke every day. In the UK, stroke ranks as the fourth most common cause of death and the leading driver of complex disability in adults. Thrombectomy, the charity says, can in an instant significantly reduce the chances of a survivor being left unable to walk, talk, or swallow. Northern Ireland has now removed the clock as a barrier to that chance. The North East is still working to do the same.

Why it matters — The time of day a stroke strikes has until now determined whether patients in most of the UK can access the most effective clot-removal treatment — Northern Ireland has just eliminated that barrier, and the North East of England's struggle to do the same shows how much is still at stake for patients elsewhere.

Reported by irishnews.com, itv.com, belfastlive.co.uk, chroniclelive.co.uk