Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the really important issue of stroke on Leaders' Questions. I know the topic has been raised previously but not for a long time. We all know the extent to which stroke affects people and their families. We know people who have died as a result of stroke, people who are surviving with the effects of stroke or who are at risk of stroke. We have a national stroke strategy, which runs to 2027. It aims to modernise and reform our services in line with the Sláintecare policy and to deal with the challenges facing Ireland from population aging and the predicted increase in the total number of strokes across Europe, including Ireland. We are fully committed to making improvements and advances in stroke services.

We have allocated more than €7 million to fund the strategy in the past two budgets. We are making real progress. The recently published Health at a Glance report shows 30-day mortality after admission to hospital for a stroke per 100 admissions for people aged 45 and over in 2021 stood at 6.3. That shows a decrease from 6.8 in 2019 and from 10.1 in 2011. To cut a long story short, a person is almost twice as likely to survive a stroke today than in 2011. That is considerable progress.

We now rank fifth best out of 18 EU member states. A comparison ranking for the same statistic over time shows we were ranked eighth best of the participating EU member states in 2016 and tenth best in 2011. Again, to cut a long story short, we have moved from tenth place to fifth place since 2011. Therefore, there has been very considerable progress in this regard. My particular thanks to all those involved in the stroke programme in primary care and our hospitals for making those very real improvements possible.

The expansion of the GP contract also includes opportunistic case finding of high blood pressure in those over 45 who hold a GMS or GP-visit card. The contract is now in place and the service commenced this year. Opportunistic case finding is one strand of the HSE’s chronic disease management programme and is for patients who GPs suspect may have an undiagnosed chronic disease or those at risk of developing one. High blood pressure is a key risk factor for developing a stroke, and this measure is a significant step towards the full implementation of the prevention pillar of the strategy.

On recruitment, funding for 25 staff was made available in budget 2023 for the recruitment of consultants, nurses and health and social care professionals to implement the strategy. To date, 12 have been recruited, including three consultants in our specialist acute stroke units and our endovascular thrombectomy services. A speech and language therapist has also been recruited, and a total of eight staff across a range of health and social care professions have been recruited to expand our early supported discharge team network, an evidence-based model of care proven to reduce hospital length of stay and provide more care in the community.

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