Over half of adults in Scotland are closely connected to stroke
- Written by: John Watson — Stroke Association — Associate Director
- Published: 29th October 2024
John Watson, Associate Director of Stroke Association Scotland, shares how vital investment into stroke care is.
At the Stroke Association, we know only too well that stroke has a huge impact on Scotland. It’s the fourth biggest killer and the biggest cause of complex adult disability. There are more than 130,000 stroke survivors living across Scotland.
The extent to which stroke is part of the fabric of our society was brought home to me recently, when we commissioned some YouGov polling to flesh out our understanding of where the public in Scotland stand on stroke.
The headline result was that over half of adults have a close personal connection to stroke, whether having had a stroke or seen a close friend or relative affected.
Perhaps it’s wrong to be surprised; most people I speak to seem to have their own stroke story.
Yet it does jar in one particular way; I don’t think stroke gets the recognition it needs in our conversations, our planning, our resourcing, or our prioritisation. The stroke professionals I speak to complain of feeling like an afterthought. In too many settings, stroke is still seen as a side-issue to geriatric care.
And that out-of-date perception is crucial. Much has changed for stroke in the last couple of decades. More people, and younger people, are having strokes. Yet stroke is now eminently treatable – providing patients can be seen quickly, and stroke teams have the resources and capacity to deliver. Unlike other neurological conditions, stroke is also recoverable, and so much more so if stroke survivors can get the support they need, for as long as they need it.
The need for attitudes and perceptions to catch up with these developments is pressing. Getting stroke care right (by getting people to professional treatment quickly, and supporting their recovery afterwards) can saves lives. But we can do so much more.
The estimated cost of stroke to Scotland is set to rise to a staggering £4.5 billion a year by 2035. We simply can’t plan for how we might absorb that cost, it’s not possible. Instead, we need to plan for how we can reduce it.
Fortunately, stroke is the kind of investable proposition that our health and social care system so badly needs. Getting stroke care right means reduced patient stays in hospital, and reduced ongoing support needs. When resources are so stretched, we need to focus investment on care that can reduce costs as well as improve outcomes.
That is why the Stroke Association is gearing up for a 2025 campaign to Make Stroke a Priority. Watch this space.
All references can be found in our recent report: Scotland’s Stroke Improvement Plan – one year on, how’s it going? on our website, here.
To find out more about Stroke Association support in Scotland, go to https://www.stroke.org.uk/scotland
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