Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some 50,000 new strokes occur every year in Australia. This week is National Stroke Week, with the National Stroke Foundation encouraging all Australians to be more aware of stroke, to live healthily to reduce the risk of stroke, and to get a regular health check. While stroke prevention and quick action is vital to reducing the incidence of, impact of and deaths from stroke, more needs to be done for those who survive. There are more than 440,000 stroke survivors in Australia. Sixty-five per cent of survivors need assistance to carry out daily living activities, yet a staggering 80 per cent of those survivors have unmet needs. Despite advances in stroke treatment, we are still well short of best practice in Australia, with significant variability and extensive gaps across the system. Patients continue to be turned away from life-saving stroke units in hospital, and far too few receive clot-busting therapy in time to reverse stroke effects.

My electorate of Newcastle is lucky enough to host world-leading researchers in the field of stroke, led by Conjoint Professor Chris Levi of the University of Newcastle, and is home to an international testing ground for new stroke treatment. But family members and carers of people who have suffered a stroke in Newcastle tell me that there are significant gaps in transitional care, intensive rehabilitation services and adequate support and services to remain living at home post stroke. In this National Stroke Week, I call on all stakeholders, including the federal government, to redouble our efforts in prevention, research and treatment and recommit ourselves— (Time expired)