Falling death rate from strokes: A job well done

Even at a moment when we are being led up the garden path in another game of dodge-and-deflect, by a health service exposed as dangerously self-serving; even at another moment when our politicians take refuge in long-fingered inquiries, when a more direct, less benign response is needed, it is important to acknowledge progress in health provision when it is made.

Two or three decades ago, a stroke may not have been an immediate death sentence but it certainly was an early staging post in the end-of-life experience we all eventually face.

Stroke services were worse than inadequate and were decades behind what was available in countries we routinely judge ourselves against. It was a health issue that had to be confronted and it was — successfully.

The death rate from strokes has halved in the last 20 years.

The Irish Medical Journal reveals that strokes are the third leading cause of death in Ireland.

Two decades ago 15% of those who suffered a stroke died within a month but that ratio is now halved at 7.5%.

A job well done.