Strokes: Medical Treatments
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure the availability of rapid paramedic treatment for people experiencing a stroke.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Suspected and confirmed strokes are serious emergencies and require timely intervention. The Government recognises that in past years, ambulance response times, including for Category 2 emergencies which includes strokes, have not met the high standards patients should expect. We are determined to address this challenge and have set out a clear path for improvement.
That is why we set out ambition in the Medium Term Planning Framework to further reduce Category 2 incident responses to 25 minutes on average for 2026/27. Backed by almost £450 million of capital investment committed in the Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, we have been expanding the capacity of same day and urgent care services alongside delivering over 500 new ambulances and reducing unacceptable ambulance handover delays, enhancing both the speed and quality of care for patients in greatest need.
We have seen improvements in Category 2 ambulance response times, with the fastest response times in five years. The latest performance figures for April 2026 show that on average, Category 2 response times were 24 minutes and 27 seconds.
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