Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Health to detail any steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for (i) speech and language therapy; (ii) physiotherapy; (iii) psychological support; and (iv) any other elements of stroke rehabilitation.
Minister of Health: Improving access to stroke rehabilitation services is a Departmental priority, in line with the Stroke Action Plan. All Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts provide stroke rehabilitation through multidisciplinary community stroke teams. Core professions within the teams include speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, psychological support and occupational therapy.
All Trusts have arrangements in place to prioritise patients based on clinical need and to provide early access to rehabilitation where possible. However, capacity constraints mean that teams cannot consistently deliver therapy at the responsiveness and intensity recommended in updated national clinical guidelines.
My Department, in line with the Stroke Action Plan, is undertaking a comprehensive stroke workforce review to assess current staffing levels and future requirements across all therapy disciplines. It should be acknowledged that efforts to address these requirements are taking place with a challenging financial climate.
My Department supports HSC Trusts in progressing innovative approaches to maximise available multidisciplinary capacity and reduce waits. These include the increased use of multidisciplinary group-based rehabilitation, digital and technology-enabled interventions, and service redesign to improve patient flow.
Ongoing improvement efforts are supported by performance monitoring through audit data, such as the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme, to identify variation and target service improvements.
ENDS
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