Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to increase the opening hours of thrombectomy centres nationally to improve access to stroke treatment.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Thrombectomy is available in 24 centres in England, with two additional non-neuroscience centres currently under development. The latest data shows that 2.8% of patients are receiving a thrombectomy following a stroke.
Integrated Stroke Delivery Networks and thrombectomy providers are developing services to provide access to thrombectomy in England 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To increase the number of specialists qualified to provide the treatment in the National Health Service, the General Medical Council aims to extend accredited training for additional medical specialists such as neurosurgeons, neurologists and stroke physicians to train in the delivery of mechanical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to meet the target of 10 per cent of eligible stroke patients receiving thrombectomy by 2022 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Thrombectomy is available in 24 centres in England, with two additional non-neuroscience centres currently under development. The latest data shows that 2.8% of patients are receiving a thrombectomy following a stroke.
Integrated Stroke Delivery Networks and thrombectomy providers are developing services to provide access to thrombectomy in England 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To increase the number of specialists qualified to provide the treatment in the National Health Service, the General Medical Council aims to extend accredited training for additional medical specialists such as neurosurgeons, neurologists and stroke physicians to train in the delivery of mechanical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the speed of Category 2 ambulance response times on (1) outcomes for stroke survivors and (2) access to thrombectomy treatment.
Answered by Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist - Opposition Whip (Lords)
Category 2 calls are ‘emergency’ calls which include serious time-sensitive incidents such as strokes and heart attacks. NHS England has allocated an additional £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements.
NHS England is providing targeted support to some hospitals which face the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients to identify short and longer-term interventions. NHS England is also implementing pre-hospital video triage in ambulances for patients with suspected stroke in specific areas in England. These patients will receive a video consultation from their home or in an ambulance with a hospital-based stroke clinician, who will advise the paramedics on the best course of action for the patient, such as whether thrombectomy is required or to which hospital they should be conveyed.