Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to meet the target of 10 per cent of eligible stroke patients receiving thrombectomy by 2022 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Thrombectomy is available in 24 centres in England, with two additional non-neuroscience centres currently under development. The latest data shows that 2.8% of patients are receiving a thrombectomy following a stroke.

Integrated Stroke Delivery Networks and thrombectomy providers are developing services to provide access to thrombectomy in England 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To increase the number of specialists qualified to provide the treatment in the National Health Service, the General Medical Council aims to extend accredited training for additional medical specialists such as neurosurgeons, neurologists and stroke physicians to train in the delivery of mechanical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke.