Stroke Association says strokes cost UK economy £25bn and urges rehab action

Channel 5 reported that the Stroke Association has warned strokes cost the UK economy more than £25 billion last year and called on the government to improve rehabilitation. The charity put £14 billion of that total down to social care and said 87% of the costs fall in the first year after a stroke.

The charity said early, high-dose and high-intensity rehabilitation could reduce disability and save the NHS money. It said only 7% of stroke patients get the recommended amount of rehabilitation, and that rehab is often treated as a nice-to-have rather than a fundamental part of recovery.

Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the Stroke Association, told Channel 5 that the common idea that stroke only affects older people was wrong. She said one in four strokes happen in people of working age and that strokes are brain attacks with physical and mental consequences, including problems walking, balancing and speaking, as well as anxiety, depression and cognitive harm.

Niamh Foster, who had a stroke at 26, described waking with a drooping face and losing her speech. Her partner Reece took her to A&E. She said the stroke upended a planned career in fashion design but gave her a new sense of purpose.

Foster told Channel 5 she paid for private occupational therapy, speech therapy and physiotherapy because she did not feel she had NHS support. She said it was 12 months after her stroke before she received physiotherapy through the NHS. She said rehabilitation was vital and described access as a postcode lottery.