Published date
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National news

You may have noticed the Long Term Plan by NHS England in the news today. For those who aren’t too sure what this means, the Long Term Plan outlines priorities and plans for the NHS in England for the next 10 years. Stroke is named as a new national priority.

There are four milestones set out by the plan for stroke care, the plan is ambitious for stroke and cardiovascular disease, and it talks about lots of different ways to improve treatment and care. For example, it specifically mentions that by 2022 ten times more patients will be getting thrombectomy – a game-changing treatment for stroke. Furthermore, the plan also states a need for improved stroke rehabilitation models by 2020, to support the after-care people affected by stroke receive when they leave hospital. This is something people affected by stroke have told us is their priority.

We are thrilled about this because we worked with NHS England and other partners to make sure that stroke is included in this new plan, as part of our A New Era for Stroke campaign. Our next step is to continue work to ensure stroke is a priority locally as well as nationally, and to work with local health leaders to include stroke in their plans, due to be finalised in April. We will also be continuing our work on the new National Stroke Programme, and will be providing more details on this over the next few weeks. 

If you are interested in what campaigning in your area could look like, or to get involved in supporting our existing campaigning work, you can contact your friendly campaigns team on campaigns@stroke.org.uk or join our campaigns network.

Don’t just take our word for it! Julie Payton, a carer and campaigner from Warrington, has been involved with our campaigning work since 2017 and says: “It is important for stroke survivors and carers to have a voice and to be included in the decisions about the new stroke strategy for stroke in England. 

We need to start more conversations about stroke locally and nationally. I didn't really know about stroke until it happened to my husband.”