Stroke Treatment

Lord Allan of Hallam Excerpts

Wednesday 27th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

This AI service, Brainomix, is one of the ground-breaking services that are part of the future of the NHS. It is part of the whole service, which will include video triaging. It is currently in 65% of hospitals, and I am sorry that it is not in my noble friend’s hospital. We have a target to increase that quite rapidly to 75%. I will look into the particular hospital that she mentions. It really is ground-breaking; overall, where we have got everything in place, full recovery has gone from 16% to 48%.

[Lord Allan of Hallam (LD)]

My Lords, to follow up on the issue of screening, atrial fibrillation is a well-known risk factor for stroke, but fortunately can now be checked for with some very cheap devices that connect to smartphones. What progress is being made on AF checks as part of screening programmes and routinely when high blood pressure is checked for? Can the Minister look particularly at the invites for the screening programme? I received one saying that I should come in for an AF check, not a stroke risk check or a cardiac risk check; they could be made much more user-friendly.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

The noble Lord is right to point that out, and I hope we are correcting it. I have seen the mobile app and digital being used to do all these things—I have even seen applications which can measure your blood pressure and pulse as you look at it. We need to check some of the accuracy around that, but it is all part of the programme. However, we need to make sure that it is in everyday English.