18 November 2005
Ministers and health service managers admitted this week that action is needed to address poor standards of NHS stroke care, after government auditors said the service was failing patients.
A damning report issued by the National Audit Office on November 16 urged the Department of Health to give stroke services a much higher priority, with better access to scans, clot-busting drugs and rehabilitation. Despite some 'pockets of excellent practice', auditors said much more needed to be done to make the best use of existing capacity.
Care services minister Liam Byrne agreed with the NAO's diagnosis. 'We too believe there is more to be done. More than 2,000 people suffer a stroke each week – implementing the NAO recommendations could save as many as an extra ten lives a week,' he said.
Byrne added: 'I have asked for work to begin on a new stroke strategy which will deliver the newest treatments and improve the care that stroke patients receive.'
It is estimated that some 40% of strokes could be prevented by tackling major risk factors such as high blood pressure. Preventing just 2% of strokes last year would have saved £37m, the NAO found. The report calls on the DoH to refer explicitly to strokes in its public health campaigns.
Approximately 110,000 strokes and a further 20,000 transient ischaemic attacks or 'mini-strokes' occur in England every year. Treating strokes costs the NHS £2.8bn each year – more than it spends on coronary heart disease.
Karen Taylor, who supervised the report for the NAO, said: 'If access to stroke units increased to 75% of patients, 550 deaths would be prevented. Achieving the same rates of thrombolysis [clot dissolving treatment for minor strokes] as Australia would save £16m a year.'
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