Amidst the surging COVID pandemic, the Stroke Society of the Philippines has endeavored and continued to push its advocacy of improving stroke care throughout the Philippines. Its project BEST-PH continues to provide the needed training for health care facilities to become Acute Stroke Ready Hospitals (ASRH). Focusing on developing stroke policy frameworks and formation of interdisciplinary stroke teams, the project facilitated the education and training of health care workers on the safe stroke protocols, care algorithms and treatment guidelines. In addition, the BEST-Ph project was able to provide the groundwork for the formation of a Telestroke network in the different hospitals. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the SSP is pleased to report that the number of acute stroke ready hospitals in the Philippines have continued to increase with the on-going stroke training activities.
Since March 2020, a total of 23 hospitals participated in the blended stroke training. Furthermore, the family physicians all over the Philippines have participated in the virtual stroke training.