Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to reduce (a) mortality and (b) long term disability from stroke.
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to reduce mortality and long term disability from stroke, including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning and increasing access to rehabilitation. This will help prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases by 2029.
Due to training requirements, thrombectomies are restricted to Interventional Neuroradiologists in England. The General Medical Council (GMC) is working with the Royal College of Radiologists to develop a medical credential in interventional neuroradiology, or acute stroke, which addresses mechanical thrombectomy. The GMC and the Royal College are ensuring the credential has the right scope to meet the needs of health services across the United Kingdom.
The National Health Service is committed to increasing the delivery of mechanical thrombectomy from 1% to 10%. The latest data shows that 2.3% of patients are now receiving a thrombectomy following a stroke. In early 2022, the NHS will undertake a quality review with each of the seven regions to increase this rate.