At the moment, depending on where you live, you might experience different standards of care if you have a stroke. The NHS wants to make sure that in the future, no matter where you live, stroke services are giving everyone the best possible chance of a good recovery. A stroke is a life-changing event. The care you receive in the first few hours can make a difference to how well you recover. Ongoing care, such as physiotherapy or community support is also really important.

We want to know what you think about everything from prevention to rehabilitation. Healthwatch wants to help the NHS understand what’s important to people. This will help help influence the way people who have a stroke receive care in the future.

Update, August 2017:

Thank you to everyone who took part in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate stroke services engagement work in February and March 2017.

The engagement work, led by Healthwatch, was all about the sustainability of quality stroke services and reducing the incidence of a stroke happening in the first place, wherever possible.

Over 1500 people gave their views via an online survey, outreach sessions with voluntary and community groups, and interviews with people in GP practices, rehabilitation units, stroke wards, and libraries.  Stroke consultants also took part in sessions so that people could hear first-hand about the care and support available from health professionals.

You can read the engagement report on Wakefield CCG’s website.

The engagement findings suggest further work is needed to reduce differences in the services people receive. That way, no matter where people live and what time of day they are admitted to hospital, they are able to receive high-quality stroke services. We need to maximise the opportunities to further improve quality of life for people. In addition, we need to reduce a person’s chance of living with a disability afterward. We recognise that ongoing care should be provided at locations closer to where people live, and people should be transferred to these as soon as possible after initial treatments. A consultation will follow early in 2018, if appropriate.

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