Mr. Chris Macey:

It is. It is almost certain that the 70% admission rate to stroke units will go down. On the basis of what we know, we estimate it will fall by 10%, which equates to another 600 patients and between 90 and 120 cases of death or avoidable disability. These decisions have massive real consequences for people. St. James's Hospital is going to return a figure of zero for the number of people who got into a stroke unit this year because it does not have one. Those figures are going to go down. Let us not forget either that the stroke rate is going up all the time. The median age of stroke is 73 and there are more and more 73-year-olds, so there are more and more strokes. As Mr. O'Donnell said, the stroke rate is going to go up by almost 60% by 2035. Our services are not even standing still. They are diminishing and the burden is growing. A stroke physician said to me the other day that Ireland is the only country in Europe that is actually closing stroke units down.