Download or read book Progress in improving stroke care written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-30 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report (HCP 405, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780215553195), looks at the "Progress in improving stroke care" and follows an NAO report (HCP 291, ISBN 9780102963441) on the same topic. Stroke is one of the top three causes of death and the largest cause of adult disability in England, costing the NHS at least £3 billion a year in direct care costs, with wider economic costs of around £8 billion. A 2006 report (HCP 911, session 2005-06, ISBN 9780215029683) highlighted serious shortcomings across the whole stroke care pathway. The Committee welcomes demonstrable improvements in stroke care which the Department of Health has achieved since. The Department and NHS have increased the priority given to stroke, particularly the speed of the acute hospital response. However, improvements have not been universal. The Committee finds it totally unacceptable that the likelihood of receiving a timely brain scan or accessing specialist care is dependent on where and when you have a stroke. Also the improvements in hospital care are not yet matched by progress in delivering more effective support once stroke survivors leave hospital with many patients discharged from hospital continuing to struggle to obtain follow-up care and access to community rehabilitation services remains a post-code lottery. The Committee has set out a number of conclusions and recommendations.