Health: Stroke Care

Lord Clinton-Davis Excerpts

Monday 30th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Clinton-Davis]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for promoting this debate. I know only too well that a stroke can have devastating effects. Often, it kills. It can often lead to serious disability, mental and physical, and it can disrupt families. The commitment to long-term support is vital, as is the training of carers in suitable cases. The Government should indicate their unwavering support for the recommendations of the CQC report, and there should not be wide discrepancies in the country in the care of stroke sufferers. In my experience, physiotherapy is an absolute must, yet it is not always available on the scale necessary or sometimes not at all. Speech and language therapy and rehabilitation are too often woefully inadequate. Local services should be more widely known. So many organisations—PCTs, adult social services and providers—have a substantial role to play, which should be recognised much more widely.

There is so much to say about this and I thank my noble friend Lord Rodgers. He and I have suffered from this. Unfortunately, there is so little time to say everything, but this scourge demands a much more positive response from the Government. They should recognise how valuable this work is. I join with others in paying tribute to the Stroke Association for the work that it has done in focusing upon the essential issues.