NHS Stroke Shortage Leaving Thousands Avoidably Disabled

Thousands of stroke patients are missing crucial treatment because the NHS lacks enough specialist doctors, senior clinicians warn — and the human cost is high. About 100,000 people in the UK have a stroke each year. Senior specialists estimate that between 10,000 and 20,000 of those patients either die or are left with serious disability that could have been prevented if expert care arrived sooner. The problem is not medicine failing; it is a workforce gap that makes timely decisions and transfers impossible. A survey of England’s acute stroke units by the British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians found significant shortfalls. Seven in ten units are missing at least one consultant, many are down two, and among responding hospitals there were 96 consultant vacancies. The service also leans heavily on locum cover, and roughly 10% of permanent stroke consultants are due to retire within five years — just as demand is set to rise. Time matters. National audit figures show the median time for someone who’s had a stroke to reach hospital was four hours and 11 minutes in 2024–25, longer than a year earlier and far slower than a decade ago. Fewer than half of patients were admitted to a specialist stroke ward within four hours of arrival — a fall from previous years. That matters for treatments such as clot-busting drugs and mechanical clot removal, which have narrow windows to prevent lasting brain damage. Smaller hospitals, particularly in rural, coastal and deprived areas, often do not have a senior stroke specialist on site around the clock. Without an expert on hand overnight or at weekends, patients can miss the treatment window or face delayed transfers to specialist centres — the difference between walking away from hospital and a lifetime of care needs. Health officials point out there are 7,000 more doctors in the NHS than a year ago and say a workforce plan is coming. But clinicians warn this does not yet match the growing burden: one projection expects strokes to rise to 151,000 a year by 2035. This is a classic mismatch: rising demand and ageing patients colliding with shortages of highly specialised staff. For the public it’s stark — slower diagnosis and delayed procedures can mean lives cut short or futures changed forever. Policymakers have pledged to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease, but without urgent investment in specialist roles, those ambitions risk running out of time. --- Managing your business finances? TaxAce provides smart online accountancy services for UK businesses with flexible monthly plans. Image and reporting: https://www.theguardian.com | Read original article