Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospitals in England are equipped to deliver thrombectomy to stroke patients.

Information is not collected centrally on the number of hospitals in England which are currently equipped to deliver thrombectomy for stroke.

In February this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published interventional procedure guidance on mechanical clot retrieval (thrombectomy) for treating acute ischaemic stroke. The guidance sets out that current evidence on the safety and efficacy of this procedure is adequate to support its use, provided that standard arrangements are in place for clinical governance, consent and audit. This guidance does not oblige commissioners to commission thrombectomy nor hospitals to provide it. The guidance is available at:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ipg548

NHS England is now undertaking work to inform a decision on whether this is a procedure that should be made more widely available.