Nine times out of ten, the issues that I speak on in Parliament come from correspondence or conversations that I’ve had with people in Glastonbury and Somerton. My decision to hold an adjournment debate on World Stroke Day, however, was personal. Last year, my dad suffered a stroke. Unfortunately, with over 14,000 registered stroke survivors in Somerset, he wasn’t alone. Stroke is the UK’s fourth biggest killer and the single largest cause of complex disability in the UK, and it’s getting worse. By 2035, on our current trajectory, one if five people will have had a stroke before the end of their lives. By that time, one in three people in Glastonbury and Somerton will be 65 or older, so people in my constituency will disproportionately feel the impact of the increase in strokes over the next decade.
Stroke is one of the few conditions that takes patients through the entirety of the health and social care system, from emergency services and acute care to social care, specialist rehabilitation support and end-of-life care. Delays in urgent care are currently leading to high mortality rates, and post-stroke services that provide crucial emotional, practical and social support are often treated as optional, rather than essential.
Leaving aside the human cost, there is also an economic cost, as strokes lead to an avoidable £1.6 billion annual loss of productivity. I recently spoke to Garry, who works in Somerset and had a stroke in his 30s. He told me plainly that he could have been back to work after nine months if he had had access to life-after-stroke care. Instead, he spent five years recovering, during which time he had to rely on the benefits system. Stroke is preventable, treatable and recoverable. So why are people like Garry forced to waste years in the prime of their life learning how to recover from strokes themselves? To my mind, it makes good moral, economic, and common sense to ring fence enough funding to pay for good quality life-after-stroke care, like the Stroke Quality Improvement for Rehabilitation Project, which has helped over half the stroke survivors who were previously being failed by services in Somerset.
There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic on this World Stroke Day. Parts of the Minister for Care’s response in the adjournment debate did make me believe that the Labour government understands the issue of stroke. I was pleased to hear him echo the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto commitment to prioritise prevention. Investing now, instead of just spending money firefighting crisis after crisis, will reduce the number of people that have a stroke and save taxpayers’ money in the long-run, and his comments appeared to recognise this.
However, the Minister went on to undermine this positive sentiment with a paltry target that pales in comparison with the scale and urgency of the challenge that stroke presents to our nation. The previous Labour government was able to reduce stroke mortality by more than half in ten years. Given we now have new diagnosis and recovery technology, why has this Labour government only committed to reducing deaths by stroke by one quarter within ten years? I want to see robust and ambitious targets that give me confidence that stroke will be treated as the priority that it needs to be in Labour’s 10 year health plan.
It is a privilege to serve as the Member of Parliament for Glastonbury and Somerton, and one of the most rewarding aspects of my job is being able to highlight worthy causes like World Stroke Day in the House of Commons. Recognising and raising the issues surrounding stroke is only the first step though, and I am committed to using this Parliament to ensure we prevent as many strokes as possible, and support survivors when they happen.
Think and act F.A.S.T., the signs of stroke are:
● Face – has their face fallen on one side? Can they smile?
● Arms – can they raise both their arms and keep them there?
● Speech – is their speech slurred?
● Time – time to call 999
The last Labour government reduced stroke mortality by more than half, why are they less ambitious now?
