Overview
For the purposes of the Thrombectomy System Score (TSS), stroke services are grouped into thrombectomy networks. These networks reflect how patients are referred in practice for mechanical thrombectomy (MT), rather than organisational or administrative boundaries.
Each thrombectomy network is designed to represent the full referral pathway leading to a thrombectomy-performing centre.
What makes up a thrombectomy network
Each thrombectomy network consists of:
- One thrombectomy centre (hub) - a hospital that performs mechanical thrombectomy.
- Referring acute stroke teams (spokes) - hospitals that admit stroke patients and refer eligible patients to the hub for MT.
The network therefore represents a hub-and-spoke model, capturing how patients flow through the system to access thrombectomy.
How referring centres are included
An acute stroke team is included in a thrombectomy network if it has:
- referred five or more patients
- to the network hub
- within a 12-month period.
This threshold is used to ensure that networks reflect established referral relationships, rather than occasional or exceptional transfers.
Time period used to define networks
The first round of thrombectomy networks is based on patient admissions from:
October 2024 to September 2025. We plan to update networks on an annual basis thereafter.
Referral activity during this period is used to determine:
- which hospitals are linked to each hub, and
- the composition of each thrombectomy network.
Hospitals in more than one network
Because referral pathways can vary, it is possible for hospitals to appear in more than one thrombectomy network:
- A referring hospital may send patients to more than one thrombectomy centre and therefore be included in multiple networks.
- A thrombectomy-performing centre may also be included in another network if it refers patients elsewhere for thrombectomy.
This approach reflects real-world referral patterns and supports a more accurate system-level assessment.
Why this approach is used
Defining networks in this way helps to:
- reflect how thrombectomy services operate in practice,
- ensure fair system-level comparison, and
- support meaningful interpretation of the TSS indicators.
The focus is on understanding pathways and access across the system, rather than attributing performance to individual hospitals in isolation