'Appalling' gap in stroke service

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Campaigners are protesting that people who have had strokes in Ceredigion and Powys are deprived of help which is available throughout the rest of Wales.

Labour AM Joyce Watson is "appalled" that key Stroke Association services are not commissioned in those areas.

The scheme gives practical help and emotional support to stroke surviors and their families.

Powys LHB said its service lapsed amid recruitment problems and it is working to develop appropriate services.

Among those calling for a better service is Ken Goodman, who had a stroke three-and-a-half years ago.

He and others at Positive Action for Stroke Cardigan told the BBC's Politics Show Wales there was a great need for rehabilitation services in Ceredigion.

Mr Goodman said: "This area is really really bad when you've got this stroke. I'm really just left on my own. It's really hard.

"If I went to my mother's in Kent, there's hundreds of things. They are letting the most vulnerable of people down Joyce Watson AM

"She said to me, 'come here!' I said, 'No, because of my property I have to be there'. But there's nothing. There is nothing."

Only one of the services is available in Pembrokeshire.

Mid and West Wales AM Ms Watson said: "People have a stroke and unfortunately they lose the power of speech.

"Now that can come back and it can be replaced with good therapy at the right time."

"If you happen to be in Powys at the moment and if you happen to be in Ceredigion or Pembrokeshire you will not have the opportunity to find your speech again."

'Very bad news'

The Stroke Association's communication support services help people learn to speak again, and its family and carer support scheme aids survivors and their relatives.

Leighton Veale of The Stroke Association said: "In Ceredigion and Powys in particular we've got no services at all.

"They are the only counties in Wales where we have no services on the ground.

"Obviously for local stroke survivors that's very bad news."

Ms Watson claimed that Local Health Boards (LHBs) had the money to commission these services but "haven't got their act together", a situation she described as "appalling".

She said: "I think there is no excuse and I think it's really poor management in this case, especially in terms of commissioning.

"They are letting the most vulnerable of people down, people who cannot actually, through their illness, even ask for themselves."

Powys LHB said its their service lapsed when it had difficulty recruiting following retirement and long-term sickness of workers. It said it was working to develop appropriate services.

But while Mr Veale is aware that local health bodies sometimes face difficult choices with the funds they receive from the Welsh Assembly Government, he said it was not enough simply to blame local commissioners.

Mr Veale said: "It is decided locally whether they want to commission services or not but obviously there is a financial issue from the Welsh Assembly Government as well."

Ms Watson said she had been assured by Health Minister Edwina Hart that the lack of these services illustrated the need for central commissioning and a move away from the internal market in healthcare, which is part of the assembly government's plan to reorganise the Welsh NHS.

The Politics Show Wales is on BBC2 Wales at 1230 GMT on Sunday.