Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent progress his Department has made on the implementation of the national stroke strategy; and if he will make a statement.

Good progress has been made on stroke since the launch of the National Stroke Strategy in 2007. Examples include:

- All ambulance trusts now treat stroke as a medical emergency and use the Face Arm Speech screening test to triage patients;

- 80% of eligible stroke patients now receive clot busting drugs, giving them a better chance of regaining their independence following a stroke;

- All hospitals admitting acute stroke patients have access to brain imaging 24 hours a day. 44% of stroke patients are scanned within one hour of hospital arrival and 88% within 12 hours; and

- 96% of stroke patients are treated at a stroke unit at some time during their hospital stay.

There are no current plans to update the National Stroke Strategy. However we want to ensure that the gains made are not lost and that this work is taken forward. This is why we published the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy in 2013, which includes many stroke specific strategic ambitions.

NHS England hosts a CVD expert forum focused on improving outcomes, which brings together the relevant National Clinical Directors, the main relevant national charities, NHS Improving Quality, the National CVD Intelligence Network, Public Health England and the Department of Health. This collaborative continues to coordinate delivery of the work which was initiated in the CVD Outcomes Strategy.

In addition, NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Stroke is working with the strategic clinical networks, clinical commissioning groups, voluntary agencies and individual providers to support better commissioning and provision of stroke care.