Thank you very much for contacting me about a new Welsh national plan for strokes.

With only one year to go, the Welsh Labour-led Government’s Stroke Delivery Plan aimed high but has failed to deliver sufficiently for stroke patients in Wales.   Sadly, three years after the Plan was launched, key problems remain in Wales, including the lack of fast and effective care and patchy rehabilitation.  I agree that immediate efforts to tackle both could improve the lives of the thousands of stroke survivors across Wales.  

Like you, I am also deeply concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on the recovery of stroke patients.  It should be a source of national shame in Wales that referral to treatment times have been allowed to spiral during this period, meaning that vital treatments, such as stroke recovery, are set aside.  As the Labour Health Minister recently admitted, Health Boards could take a full Parliamentary term – that is, five years – to clear the backlog.

I am also worried that these times will be allowed to further lengthen, as the Health Minister has recently announced a framework for Health Boards to pause “non-essential” services and deploy staff elsewhere, as cases of COVID-19 continue to spike in Wales and the Welsh NHS becomes stretched.  Rest assured, my colleagues and I in the Welsh Conservatives have been consistently calling for the Welsh Labour-led Government to introduce targeted measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 across Wales, while creating COVID-free hospital sites for other patients to continue their treatment.  To date, these calls have been ignored. 

As a result, my colleague, the Shadow Minister for Health, Social Services and Sport, Andrew RT Davies MS, will raise your concerns directly with the Health Minister.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to me.