The Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee

Announcement of Committee Inquiry: Stroke Services in Wales

Written Consultation Reponses

The Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee has agreed to undertake an inquiry into the provision of stroke services in Wales and is calling for those with an interest or expertise in this area to submit written evidence.

Background

There has been criticism in recent years about stroke services in Wales, in particular in the National Sentinel Stroke Audit series of reports published by the Royal College of Physicians which raised serious concerns about the quality of services.  The most recent report, published in April 2009, recognised improvements in stroke services but Wales continues to perform poorly by comparison with England and Northern Ireland.  The Welsh government has responded to these concerns by prioritising stroke services with an improvement programme and additional funding.

The Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee have therefore agreed to examine the provision of services in Wales.

Terms of Reference

The Committee has agreed the following terms of reference for its inquiry:

"To examine the current provision of services for stroke victims in Wales and the effectiveness of Welsh government policies in addressing any weaknesses in these services, including:

• availability of specialist stroke units in hospitals across Wales and geographical variation in these services;

• the resources devoted to stroke services in Wales;

• availability of specialist staff in acute settings, recruitment and training;

• availability of specialist equipment, such as scanners to determine type of stroke;

• availability of aftercare and rehabilitation services, including speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other community based services

• good practice in the treatment and management of stroke in Wales, the UK and other countries and ways in which such practice can be disseminated;

• programmes for the prevention of stroke and the promotion of lifestyles that minimise the risk of stroke;

• the effectiveness of indicators and performance measures applied to stroke services;

• the impact of NHS restructuring on stroke services in Wales; and

• equality issues relating to the provision of stroke services, including those for BME groups.”

Among the other key issues that the inquiry will wish to consider are:

• Providing dedicated beds and specialist staff to treat strokes and the lack of such specialist stroke units in Wales;

• Good rehabilitation immediately following stroke and continuing following discharge from hospital, including services such as speech therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, and the timely provision of housing adaptations where needed    

• Support for people with communication problems following a stroke

• Administering 'clot busting’ treatment (thrombylosis)

• Information on the prevention and treatment of strokes both to the public and health professionals

Interested parties are invited to submit written evidence to the Clerk of the Committee at the address below, to arrive no later than Friday 28 August 2009. If possible, please supply an electronic version in MS Word or Rich Text format, either by e mail to health.wellbeing.localgovt.comm@wales.gsi.gov.uk or on a disk. Further guidance on the submission of evidence is attached. I would be grateful if you could share this request with other interested parties or, where appropriate, any of your member organisations.

The Committee may call on those who have submitted written evidence to supplement it in oral evidence to the Committee.  Please indicate in your response whether you would be prepared to give evidence in person.

Witnesses should be aware that once written evidence has been submitted to the Committee it is treated as the property of the Committee. It is the Committee’s intention to place written papers on its website, and they may subsequently be printed with the report. 

It is normal practice for the National Assembly to publish evidence provided to a committee. Consequently your response may appear in a report or in supplementary evidence to a report. The National Assembly will not publish information which it considers to be personal data.

In the event of a request for information submitted under UK legislation, it may be necessary to disclose the information that you provide. This may include information which has previously been removed by the National Assembly for publication purposes.

If you are providing any information, other than personal data, which you feel is not suitable for public disclosure, it is up to you to stipulate which parts should not be published, and to provide a reasoned argument to support this. The National Assembly will take this into account when publishing information or responding to requests for information.

12 June 2009

Membership of the Committee:

Lorraine Barrett AM, Peter Black AM, Andrew R T Davies AM, Irene James AM, Ann Jones AM, Helen Mary Jones AM, Dai Lloyd AM, Val Lloyd AM, Darren Millar AM (Chair)