Only 6.4% of stroke survivors get the NHS rehab they are owed

Fewer than one in 15 stroke survivors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive the rehabilitation therapy they are entitled to. Only 6.4% got the three hours a day of physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy that NICE guidelines say should be delivered at least five days a week, according to the latest Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme report. The previous quarter's figure was 7.5%.

The average survivor in the three countries received 40 minutes of therapy in January to March this year, six minutes less than in late 2024. Some patients got as little as 15.2 minutes, and the most anyone received was 57.3 minutes. Only 68% of patients got continuing help with their rehabilitation after being discharged from hospital.

Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the Stroke Association, branded the numbers damning and said the system too often focuses on treating the emergency rather than what comes after it. Almost 100,000 people a year in the UK have a stroke, the single largest cause of complex disability, and the annual toll is projected to climb to 115,483 by 2030 as the population ages and more people develop high blood pressure or diabetes.

The charity also published a report putting stroke's annual cost to the UK at £25.7bn. Social care for survivors swallows £13.7bn of that, wider societal costs such as patients losing their jobs and relatives giving up work to care for them add £6.7bn, and welfare benefits plus income tax not collected come to £2.4bn on their own.

Bouverie said services for stroke survivors are already overstretched to breaking point. The Department of Health and Social Care did not comment on the overwhelming majority of patients missing out on enough rehabilitation, instead stressing NHS efforts. A spokesperson pointed to a 10-year health plan pledge to cut premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by a quarter within a decade, a cardiovascular disease service framework published in July, and work to increase thrombolysis and thrombectomy rates.