Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of patients are admitted to a specialist stroke bed within 72 hours of a stroke.

It is not possible to provide data of how many and what proportion of patients are admitted to a specialist stroke bed within 72 hours of a stroke, as that metric is not measured by NHS England.

NHS England Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme showed that between January to March 2023 showed that 96.8% or 14,759 patients arrived at hospital within 72 hours of onset of symptoms of stroke. The median time from onset of symptoms to arrival at a stroke unit was 11 hours and eight minutes.

91.9% of patients went to a stroke unit as the first admitting ward, being admitted with a median of four hours and 55 minutes from arrival at the hospital.