Mr. Chris Macey:

Just to pick up on one point Ms Bardon made about the cliff face in terms of going back into the community after hospital discharge. As members well know, the HSE has a plan for everything, but stroke survivors are not entitled to a discharge plan on leaving hospital. In the UK, that is part of the entitlement for stroke survivors. There is a six-month follow-up and then an annual appointment after that. We need something like that. We also need clear information on the services that are available and what is not available to stroke survivors. I know one man who spent 12 months looking for services. He was relieved at the end of that time when he found out that there was nothing available because he said he felt stupid that he was not able to find what was out there.

I was asked the reason the number of strokes will increase so rapidly. That is really down to age demographics. The median age for stroke in Ireland is 74, and we are going to have a lot more 74 year olds. Also, one in four of all strokes is among people of working age. We are concerned that this group is growing as well for unexplained reasons. It is not fully clear, but that is a huge area of unmet needs in terms of stroke services in the community.