Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure progress in the treatment of stroke throughout the country once the National Stroke Strategy comes to an end in December.

Although the National Stroke Strategy comes to an end in December, NHS England continues to lead an effective programme of work on prevention and treatment.

NHS England is improving acute treatment through the centralisation of care in centres that can provide the highest level of care at all times of the day and week. Stroke is one of the five conditions chosen to deliver the urgent and emergency care standards by this autumn.

NHS England has established a cardiovascular disease (CVD) collaborative to bring together relevant stakeholders in the field of CVD and provide a forum where relevant work being undertaken in this area and potential new initiatives can be discussed and responsibilities for action determined.

CVD prevention is a key theme in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View and its NHS RightCare programme.

NHS England have also recently announced that it will be commissioning the new treatment of thrombectomy (extracting the blood clot causing the blockage to blood flow through a catheter inserted into the artery). This will initially be provided in the neuroscience centres, but in due course additional centres may need to provide this treatment to ensure complete population coverage.