Stroke services are 'UK's worst'

Specialist services for stroke patients in Powys are said to be scarce

Services for stroke victims in Wales are the worst in the UK, a leading stroke expert has claimed.

Dr Tony Rudd, who assessed services in Wales, England and Northern Ireland two years ago, said services in Wales were "scandalously bad".

He makes the claim in BBC Wales' current affairs programme Week In Week Out which investigated the issues with stroke treatment provision in Wales.

However, the Wales Stroke Alliance said improvements had been made to services.

Dr Rudd has kept tabs on any improvements to the stroke services in Wales since his assessment in 2007

He said they had "remained virtually stationary" in Wales over the 10 years he had been assessing them.

Welsh politicians should be ashamed of themselves for letting the situation drift, he said.

Brain scan

The Week In Week Out investigation of stroke treatment provision in Wales found that specialist services in Powys were particularly scarce.

The programme also found there are too few hospital staff available in Wales to scan or assess stroke victims at weekends.

Many hospitals do not meet the best practice guidelines of administering a brain scan within 24 hours and administering physiotherapy within 72 hours, Week In Week Out discovered.

However, Dr Ann Freeman, chair of the Wales Stroke Alliance, said improvements had been made over the last year.

She said there were now three hospitals offering special clot-busting drugs for stroke victims compared with none two years ago.

The Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant near Cardiff has also developed a service with 24/7 scanning for stroke victims.

Dr Freeman said she hoped that by 2010, stroke patients in Wales would get a service as good as that found in England.

Leadership

In 2007, the Welsh Assembly Government committed