Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the announcement by NHS England of 11 April 2017 on mechanical thrombectomy, when the assessment of the readiness of each of the 24 neuroscience centres to carry out mechanical thrombectomy will be completed; and whether the results of this assessment will be published.

NHS England agreed to fund thrombectomy for stroke in April 2017.

Progression to full implementation will need to take place on a phased basis to ensure the service providers can put in place the necessary staffing and working arrangements. In the short term there will be an interim set of arrangements.

Initially the procedure will be undertaken in neuroscience centres which are currently being assessed to ensure that they meet the standards set out in the service specification that is currently out for public consultation. This information will be used by a national oversight group and regional commissioning teams to assess who is able to provide the service in this interim period and will not be published. Further work with the providers of this service will be completed with regional commissioners and the services directly to establish clear action plans which will lead to full implementation.

It is anticipated that there will be some 1,000 cases completed by the end of March 2018; and that, by 2023, about 10% of stroke admissions in England (8,000 cases) will be treated with thrombectomy annually. NHS England have not undertaken an independent cost benefit analysis of thrombectomy but there have been research studies published such as Jean Ganesalingam et al – “Cost-Utility Analysis of Mechanical Thrombectomy Using Stent Retrievers”, in Acute Ischemic Stroke 2015;46:2591-2598. This showed that it is a highly cost effective treatment, particularly when the longer term health and social care costs are taken into account.