Stroke Sufferers

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. Yes, I will come on to those issues, and no doubt the Minister will respond on the patchy nature of provision. We need to look for the trend lines. Is something improving, and is it improving everywhere? Is there convergence in levels of provision? It would be unfair to say in a year, ““Has this problem been solved?”” Of course it will not be, but colleagues on both sides of the House will hope to see the trend lines going in the right direction. Why do we do scans? I understand that the main reason is to exclude the other cause of strokes, which is a bleed in the brain. Clearly, we do not want to administer clot-busting drugs if the cause is a bleed, and a scan will immediately eliminate that possibility. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommended in July 2008, just a few months ago, that a brain scan should take place within one hour of someone being admitted to hospital. The strategy emphasises the need to improve access to scans and stipulates that brain imaging should be performed in the next scan slot, or within 60 minutes of a request out-of-hours. In 2006, only one in 10 people were scanned within three hours. We need a tight target to make scans available 24/7. Any unit unable to deliver scans by a particular time should not be called a specialised stroke unit. I hope that the Minister will consider that. In Sweden, 100 per cent. of those who need a scan get one, and we should aspire to that in this country. Will the Minister tell us the percentage of scans in the UK and in my own city of Nottingham, and by what date we aspire to reach 100 per cent.?