Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland calling for support for its No Life Half Lived campaign
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
CHARITY Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland is calling for people in the Grampian region to join their campaign to make sure people living with a chest, heart or stroke condition don’t have to recover on their own.
The health charity has launched the No Life Half Lived campaign, urging all Scottish political parties to stop the “damaging domino effect” that the pandemic could have on the country’s most vulnerable and the NHS for years to come.
They say that a nationwide roll-out of their Hospital to Home service – which provides a programme for support built around people’s individual needs – would help free up NHS resources, allowing them to focus on more acute care and help save lives.
Chest, heart and stroke conditions are among the biggest health challenges in Scotland, both for the people affected by them and for health and care services.
In Grampian, more than 11,600 people are living with the impact of stroke or TIA; more than 21,440 people have chronic heart disease; nearly 11,000 people are living with the incurable lung disease COPD and an estimated 10 per cent of people who have had Covid-19 are living with ‘long covid’.
However, in Grampian, the charity is only able to provide support for people who have had a stroke.
With additional Scottish Government support, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland could provide their Hospital to Home service for people with chest and heart conditions. The charity believes this would help protect NHS and Social Care capacity, enabling services to deal with more complex cases.
Jane-Claire Judson, chief executive at Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, said: “The pandemic is having a devastating impact on some of Scotland’s most vulnerable people.
"Without further action, we will see a damaging domino effect on our society and our NHS for years to come.
“People living with chest, heart and stroke conditions were often struggling before the pandemic. Now that’s been magnified and we are hearing from people who feel their recovery is going backwards.
“The NHS is also in full crisis management mode just now, we need to make sure that this situation doesn’t translate into a permanent state of crisis.
“Our Hospital to Home service is helping keep people well at home and reducing the likelihood that they will need to go back into hospital. It needs to be there for everyone who needs help.
“Going into the elections, we need a consensus from the parties to come together and make sure that services like ours are routinely embedded into NHS pathways across Scotland.
“We need to see this across all health boards to make sure that everyone in Scotland can have access to the support they need."
You can sign a petition run by Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland here: www.chss.org.uk/nolifehalflived.
