Stroke Association welcomes new long term plan for health and social care in Wales

‘A Healthier Wales’ has been produced in response to the Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care published earlier this year. The plan commits the Welsh Government to improve working between health and social care, and increasing the number of people receiving care in the community instead of in hospital. The plan also states that future specialist services will be available to everyone in Wales regardless of where they live.

You can read ‘A Healthier Wales’ here.

The Stroke Association believes that for Welsh Government to fulfill the plan’s vision, improvements must be made to access Early Supported Discharge (ESD) as well as to the therapies used by stroke survivors. In the most recent SSNAP results, less than five percent of patients received ESD at 8 of the 12 stroke units in Wales.

Margaret Street, Director of the Stroke Association in Wales said:

“We welcome the new plan and look forward to seeing improved services for stroke patients and survivors in Wales. Commitments to evidence based care and better access to specialist services must translate into better quality stroke units and increased availability of thrombectomy.

“The plan really highlights the importance of supporting people in the community. Too many stroke survivors aren’t able to get enough support from speech and language therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists or physiotherapists. And some spend longer in hospital than they need to due to a lack of Early Supported Discharge.

“Making sure stroke survivors get support to leave hospital and can access these therapies must be a priority for turning this plan into a reality.”