Hansard

I, too, thank Alexander Stewart for securing this important debate and for raising the importance of strokes and world stroke day. I am pleased to support the motion.

Strokes have not stopped because of Covid, so we must ensure that stroke survivors have equity in stroke care during and after the pandemic. Each year in Scotland, 10,000 people have strokes. For survivors, the impacts can include speech and communication problems and physical disability. It can be devastating and, as others have said, the impact is not just on survivors, but on their carers, families and friends.

In Shetland, around 40 people a year have a stroke. In the past 15 years, the figure has come down from 55 a year Two thirds of patients survive their stroke. Lifestyle changes and improved treatments have made an impact on the figures, as has the work of dedicated healthcare professionals across the country. I am thinking of professionals such as Dorothy Storey, who is a recently retired specialist stroke nurse. I pay tribute to Dorothy, whose dedication to the care of stroke survivors is well known in Shetland. She has also played an active part in Shetland Stroke Support Group. I wish her well in her retirement.

I recently met members of the Shetland Stroke Support Group—it was a virtual meeting, of course. They are a fantastic group of people who, under normal circumstances, have a busy schedule of get-togethers and outings to various parts of Shetland. They have missed those visits this year and are, like everyone else, having to adapt to the new normal. They have a strong networking bond and provide one another with much-needed support.

Such support is especially needed in island and rural areas, where it is not always easy to access treatment and support services. Services are centralised in Lerwick, so for a stroke survivor from the north isles of Shetland there can be a tiring journey to hospital—for example, for a physiotherapy session.

I have personal experience of the impact of stroke on a family. My mother was living in Aberdeen at the time of her stroke in 2004. I rushed to Aberdeen on the first flight that I could get from Shetland, but by the time I saw her in the accident and emergency department she had lost power down one side of her body and her speech was obviously affected. I am firmly of the belief that by the time the consultant came—eventually—to discuss her prognosis, the idea of her receiving any treatment had been dismissed, simply because of her age. She was 81. Even if she could have benefited from a thrombectomy, she would not have received one. “She’s had a long life”, said the consultant. That was true, but he did not know her spirit; he knew only her date of birth. She returned to Shetland to live in a care home, but the effects of the stroke caught up with her, and she spent a prolonged period in hospital until her death, aged 87. She was cared for by a wonderful dedicated team in the Ronas ward.

I use that experience to illustrate how far stroke treatment and care have come in the past 15 years. However, as the Stroke Association highlighted in its briefing for members, there is wide variation in the performance of NHS boards, and a patient’s outcome is dependent on where and when they have a stroke. I add my voice to the association’s call for a national thrombectomy service that works, and for improvement in door-to-needle times. Please let us end the postcode lottery of stroke care in Scotland.