Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to support the NHS roll-out of new and innovative mechanical thrombectomy techniques in the treatment of stroke.

In April this year, NHS England announced that it will commission mechanical thrombectomy so it can become more widely available for patients who have certain types of acute ischaemic stroke – a severe form of the condition.

Work by NHS England is now underway to assess the readiness of 24 neuroscience centres across the country. It is expected the treatment will start to be phased in shortly with an estimated 1,000 patients set to benefit across the first year of introduction.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published interventional procedure guidance in February 2016, titled “mechanical clot retrieval for treating acute ischaemic stroke”. The guidance reviews the safety and efficacy of the procedure. The decision on whether to fund this procedure is made at a local National Health Service level and usually on a case-by-case basis.