Stroke Sufferers

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mr. Williams, in this important debate. A number of colleagues from both sides of the House are here this morning, some of whom have suffered strokes and some of whom have family members and close friends who have suffered strokes. I am sure that that applies to almost everyone in Westminster Hall this morning. In my constituency last year, 72 people were killed by strokes. A stroke is a brain attack—the brain equivalent of a heart attack. It is caused by an interruption of the blood supply to the brain, and one in 10 of us will die as a result of a stroke. If we thought of a stroke as a heart attack needing the same emergency and specialist response, followed by sustained treatment, we could save thousands of lives and thousands of years of disability. In my city, 700 people had a stroke last year. One third of strokes result in death, one third of sufferers recover and one third are left with a disability. Strokes are also the leading cause of severe adult disability. One in four long-term beds in the NHS are occupied by stroke patients. The disabilities resulting directly from strokes are more widespread than those resulting from any other cause, and can blight people's lives for years and even decades. For many years in the UK, stroke was the poor relation in the health service. The Stroke Association, the work of which I commend, as I am sure will other hon. Members, labelled the United Kingdom as having"““the unenviable reputation of having one of the worst outcomes for stroke patients in Western Europe.””" However, I congratulate the Government on what they have done to rid themselves and our country of that reputation, and the gap is slowly beginning to close. I have 14 questions, and I have sent them with a copy of my speech to the Minister. If he cannot answer any, I shall be pleased if he will write to me and other hon. Members. First, will he tell us whether we are in fact closing the gap between the UK and western Europe on stroke outcomes, which is one of the strongest measures that we can look for? The Secretary of State has said:"““we know that if a stroke patient is treated quickly, and the simple things are done right, death rates can be halved and outcomes can be substantially improved.""So we have two clear aims in this strategy: to reduce the number of strokes experienced each year and to ensure that we provide effective acute and follow up care when strokes happen.””"