Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the quality of stroke care in rural areas.

The Department has made no assessment of the quality of acute, post and community stroke care in rural and metropolitan areas. However, the Sentinel Stroke National Audit programme reports the results of the quality of both hospital and community care quarterly at trust and clinical commissioning group level. These data are in the public domain and can be found at:

www.strokeaudit.org

NHS England’s Five Year Forward View sets out the healthcare strategy for the whole of England, including rural areas. Rural areas have their own health needs, which should be taken into account in planning and developing healthcare systems. It is for clinical commissioning groups to judge the needs of their local areas and make sure that they are reflecting the specific circumstances of those areas.