Meeting of the Parliament 21 June 2017
I, too, thank Alexander Stewart for lodging what is an excellent and very comprehensive motion, which provides members with the opportunity to raise awareness of the devastating impact that suffering a stroke has on the lives of far too many of our constituents, the importance of ensuring that they have the appropriate care to recover and the need for us to avoid complacency when it comes to the prevention of strokes.
As the motion highlights, 14,000 people in Scotland suffer a stroke every year. In my home region of Dumfries and Galloway, 4,000 people alone are living with the long-term and often debilitating consequences of strokes while in neighbouring Ayrshire and Arran the figure is more than 10,000. With more people living with a stroke and needing long-term community-based care, there is a need for the Scottish Government to properly fund that support, whether it is provided through local authorities, the NHS or third sector organisations such as Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland. That support includes specialist stroke nurses, who in health board areas such as Dumfries and Galloway are funded through a partnership between Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and the health board. However, not all health boards support that service, which results in a postcode lottery of care.
Support is also provided by volunteers such as Christina Rafferty in Dumfries, who for the past three years has volunteered with Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland as a core communication and outreach volunteer. Christina works on a weekly basis with a stroke survivor in Dumfries who has difficulty with movement, speech, eating and drinking but who, with Christina’s support, is determined to write again. That story and the invaluable work of volunteers such as Christina highlight just how debilitating a stroke can be and show why doing what we can to prevent strokes is so important.
As members will know, the most common and well-known causes of strokes are hypertension—or high blood pressure, as it is better known—smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes and excessive alcohol intake. The benefits of a healthy diet and regular exercise in reducing the risk of suffering a stroke cannot be overstated. However, a leading cause of strokes is atrial fibrillation, which increases a person’s risk of having a stroke by around five times. Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common forms of abnormal heart rhythms, and 92,000 people in Scotland are currently diagnosed with that condition. However, with one in four people over the age of 65 developing atrial fibrillation, the actual number of people who live with it is likely to be higher. Not only are sufferers of AF more likely to have a stroke; AF-related strokes are more severe than non-AF-related strokes, and the total care costs in the first year of a stroke are three times higher.
In many cases, the underlying cause of AF is largely unknown. Although some people with AF display symptoms such as palpitations, tiredness, shortness of breath and dizziness, the symptoms can often be very mild, and many people do not display any symptoms. Despite that, determining whether someone could have AF is relatively simple. If a person is at rest, their normal heart rate should be 60 to 100 beats per minute. With atrial fibrillation, the heart rate can often be considerably higher than 100 beats per minute, and each individual beat is erratic. If a person has their pulse checked and assessed, that can give a general practitioner a good indication of whether they could have AF.
AF is not usually life threatening, but the strokes that it could cause may well be. That is why the cross-party group on heart disease and stroke, which I have the pleasure of co-convening with Maree Todd, launched an inquiry last night to consider what steps can be taken to improve the outcomes and experiences for people with AF and their families and carers. The inquiry will look into the diagnosis, treatment and care of people in Scotland who live with that condition.
The first stage of the inquiry was the publication of two surveys last night—one for people who live with the condition and one for clinicians or those who work for an organisation with an interest in AF services in Scotland. I urge anyone who falls into either category to complete a survey—the surveys can be found on the British Heart Foundation website—and I hope that MSPs and anyone who is watching the debate will promote the surveys in their communities.
The consultation period for the inquiry will run until 15 September, and the final report is due to be published in January 2018. I assure members that we will make Parliament very much aware of the outcome of the inquiry.
I thank the British Heart Foundation and the Stroke Association for their work on that inquiry, and Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and all our fantastic health and social care staff for the work that they do in supporting people who are impacted by conditions such as AF and strokes. We all have a duty to support that work and, better still, to do what we can to reduce the number of strokes in the first place.
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