“It’s Difficult, There’s No Formula”: Qualitative Study of Stroke Related Communication Between Primary and Secondary Healthcare Professionals

Introduction: Stroke survivors have complex health needs requiring long-term, integrated care. This study aimed to elicit generalists’ and specialists’ experience of stroke-related interprofessional communication, including perceived barriers and enablers.

Design and Setting: Qualitative study involving generalist (primary care) and specialist services (acute and community) in England. Six focus groups (n = 48) were conducted.

Method: Healthcare professionals were purposively selected and invited to participate. Audio-recordings were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Analysis.

Results: Four themes were identified: 1) Generalists and specialists have overlapping roles but are working in silos; 2) Referral decision-making process as influential to generalist-specialist communication; 3) Variable quality of communication; and 4) Improved dialogue between generalist and specialist services.

Conclusions: Generalists and specialists recognise the need for better communication with each other. Current care is characterised by silo-based working that ignores the contribution of other sectors. Failure to bridge this communication gap will result in people with stroke continuing to experience unmet stroke needs and fragmented care.