Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of placing skilled and specialist medical staff on ambulance calls to assess patients who have suffered from strokes prior to them arriving at a local hospital or comprehensive stroke unit.

NHS England is funding areas in England to implement pre-hospital video triage for people with a suspected stroke. Patients will receive a video consultation from their home or onboard an ambulance with a hospital-based stroke clinician, who will advise the paramedics on the appropriate treatment for the patient, such as thrombectomy or to which hospital they should be conveyed.