A SPECIALIST team at Hereford County Hospital will be part of a pioneering medical trial testing the use of brain stem cells in stroke recovery.

The research - known as PISCES trial 2 -is the second phase of the world’s first clinical trial on the use of brain stem cells to treat patients with limited movement of an arm following a stroke.

Hereford County Hospital’s stroke team has been given the go-ahead to take part in the trial - working with researchers at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham – and, from this week, will invite patients who meet the criteria to take part.

Reports on the first PISCES trial - carried out in 2013 – said the potential for brain stem cell therapy as a treatment for stroke patients showed promise.

This second phase of the trial involves a wider group of patients to assess the treatment’s effectiveness.

The therapy is made up of 20 million stem cells that are injected into the area of the brain affected by the stroke.

Emma Rowan, research and development manager at Wye Valley NHS Trust said: “This study has the potential to change the way we think about stroke treatment options, and is an excellent example of how research can bring pioneering treatments to our patients earlier than available commercially.”

Stroke services are something of a success story for the trust having been on borrowed time just over a year ago.

Then, Hereford Times revealed that stroke patients could have to travel as far as Worcester or Gloucester for treatment with the trust and the CCG at odds over a business case for the services.

The trust board had been told that the trust could not continue to provide a service that was "under-resourced" and recognised as "sub-optimal."

Resulting talks brought West Midlands Ambulance Trust, NHS England and the Powys Local Health Board into the fold to shape that case.

By October, the trust and Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)  announced a £1.1 million investment in stroke services.

The sum had been secured through the CCG.

A Stroke Programme Board was set up to review current resources and agree plans to improve and put a “stroke pathway” care plan in place.

This plan offered seven-day services developed to a phased programme based on national models of best practice and recommendations made by the British Association of Stroke Physicians.

A recent meeting of the trust board recognised how far stroke services has come, even if progress was still tempered by poor performance against patient targets for transient ischemic attack or “mini strokes”.

The service has also had hard time recruiting at consultant and specialist level.

But the “care pathway” plan so much a part of securing a future for the service is in place as a multi-agency approach to treatment from assessment to discharge.

Stroke services are now all co-located on Wye ward at Hereford County Hospital having moved out of the Hillside unit.

The board was confident of a strong stroke service if recruitment challenges could be met.

Stroke patients make up a significant specialist workload for the trust.

Trust Chief executive Richard Beeken has said he was “overwhelmed” by the number of stroke patients in the county compared to other trusts he had worked with.