A below inflation increase to stroke care funding next year will leave even more Scots without the care they need to ensure their best chance of survival and recovery, stroke organisations have today warned.

In an open letter, leaders from Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, the British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians and the Stroke Association say a real-terms funding cut for stroke services announced in the 2025/26 Scottish budget is ‘the last thing stroke services in Scotland need’.

Only half of the more than 10,000 people in Scotland who had a stroke last year received the most critical levels of care they needed, while just one in seven people who would have benefited from a thrombectomy – a procedure which involves removing a blood clot from the brain – received it.

The organisations warn in their letter that the decision to raise the stroke and thrombectomy budget by 1.9% next year will further stall the development of an equitable national thrombectomy service.

They also warn that the lack of recurrent funding makes it ‘extremely challenging’ to retain skilled staff, and that Scotland will continue to ‘lag behind’ in stroke care as a result.

They are calling for the Scottish government to commit to an at least above inflation increase in stroke funding until the end of this parliament, and to sign off on new thrombectomy services in the stroke improvement plan by the end of January 2025.

They write:

‘We believe we are currently spending more time and resources planning the details of thrombectomy provision than we are actually delivering it. It has taken too long to deliver too little.

‘Meanwhile, every single day, stroke patients who could benefit from thrombectomy are left to live a life with life changing, permanent disabilities. 

‘Stroke survivors can’t wait any longer for what is now an essential treatment.’

The Scottish government has committed in its stroke improvement plan to explore options to expand the national thrombectomy service.

The organisations say the government group set up to plan the new service estimates that a national service in operation between 8am and midnight would ensure that 93% of eligible patients could access thrombectomy.

The letter sent to MSPs today is co-signed by Jane-Claire Judson, Chief Executive of Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, John Watson, Associate Director of the Stroke Association, and Professor David Werring, British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians.

The Scottish government has been approached for comment.

 

Read more: Right to rehab: The first step to recovery; Stroke care only reaches half of Scots patients; Call for legal right of Scots to rehabilitation; Psychological support after stroke lacking

 

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