Petitions Committee
House of Commons, London SW1A OAA
Tel 020 7219 7614 Email [email protected]
Website www.parliament.uk/petitions-committee
Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
· Secretary of State for Health Richmond House 79 Whitehall London SW1A2NS ' .
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7 September 2016
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The Petitions Committee met on 6 September and considered a number of recent e­
petitions, including "We call on the Government to commit to a new national stroke
strategy", to which your department has responded.
The response explained that, because the stroke strategy 1s currently being
delivered, the Government has no plans to renew it. The response went on to
explain other related work, but did not address the central issue raised by the
petition, namely, what will happen when the current strategy expires.
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We would be grateful if you could inform us whether a new national stroke strategy
will be introduced once the current one expires, and if no renewed strategy will be
introduced, we would be grateful if you could explain the policy reasoning behind
this decision so that we can pass on this information to all those who have signed
the petition.
Helen Jones MP Chair of the Petitions Committee •
From David Mowat MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Community Health and Care
Department
of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehalf
London
SW1A 2NS
POC 1063169
Tel: 020 7210 4850
Helen Jones IvIP
Chair of the Petitions Committee
House of Commons
London
SWIAOAA
1 7 JAN 2017
J
Thank you for your letter dated 7 September about the National Stroke Strategy.
Decisions on whether the National Stroke Strategy should be renewed are a matter for
NHS England, though I note they have moved away from disease specific strategies and
are focussing more on cross cutting issues, such as the provision of urgent and emergency
care services and improving access to prevention programmes, as articulated through the
NHS Five Year Forward View. The National Stroke Strategy has driven huge
improvements in stroke care over the last 10 years and we collectively consider that it
remains active in policy terms, implementation of it continues and stroke care certainly
remains a priority.
There is ongoing work in virtually all parts of the country to organise acute care so as to
ensure that all stroke patients regardless of where they live or what time of the day or
week they have their stroke have access to high quality specialist care. Stroke is also one
ofthe five conditions chosen to deliver the urgent and emergency care standards by next
autumn. Thrombectomy for the treatment of stroke is one ofthe conditions chosen as a
priority to be considered for new funding through specialised commissioning for the
current round of protocol development. Cardiovascular disease prevention is a very
prominent theme in the NHS Five Year Forward View and in the work ofNHS
RightCare, which aims to ensure that the right person has the right care, in the right place,
at the right time, making the best use of available resources. In addition, Public Health
England will be running another Act FAST campaign early in 2017 to raise awareness of
the signs and symptoms of stroke.
I hope this reassures you that stroke remains high on NHS England's agenda and that it
continues to implement the strategy's recommendations as well ensuring the NHS keeps
up to date with developments in stroke care and newer treatments such as thrombectomy.
I would like to also take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work as Chair of
the Petitions Committee.
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