A fifth of stroke survivors questioned in England for a recent survey did not receive any posthospital physiotherapy on the NHS, meaning they either had to pay for private treatment or go without any.
The results also showed that almost three quarters of physiotherapists surveyed in the UK believe they are not able to deliver the best outcomes for stroke patients. The survey conducted by The Stroke Association and The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy asked 1,160 physiotherapists and stroke survivors about their experience. One in four stroke survivors surveyed in England said they had to wait more than a month for their first physiotherapy session after they left hospital. Some 74% of physiotherapists questioned in the UK felt that current systems and resources limited what they could achieve with their stroke patients, with only 22% of them saying they had been able to fully meet their clients’ goals. The survey results are contained in a new report called Moving on, a joint publication by The Stroke Association and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy to highlight the importance of access to physiotherapy for stroke survivors after they are discharged from hospital. The report, launched at the Houses of Parliament, calls for all stroke survivors to have access to physiotherapy once they leave hospital and for more to be done with current resources to meet the needs of stroke patients. Physiotherapy plays a key role in helping patients regain mobility and independence after their stroke. While improvements have been made in the acute care of stroke since the introduction of the National Stroke Strategy for England in 2007, the picture is different when stroke patients leave hospital. Some 83% of physiotherapists questioned believed that the process of transfer of care for stroke survivors from hospital to home could be improved. More than half (52%) said that the outcomes for about half of their clients could have been improved if physiotherapy could be tailored to each patient’s needs.
