Stroke affects people of the same age and in the same numbers as coronary heart disease¹; thrombolytic therapy is highly effective for selected patients in the first three hours²; and both treatment in stroke units³ and immediate brain imaging⁴ are cost effective. Yet patients and the public have low expectations of outcomes after stroke.

Moreover, as the National Audit Office (NAO) reports, stroke is not afforded the same priority by the NHS as other serious diseases.⁵ The NAO argues that the NHS lacks sufficient emergency responses to stroke and effective acute care, provides too few services for rehabilitation and support after discharge from hospital for both patients and carers, and does too little to prevent stroke. The last important lever for improving services for stroke …