Paul Luscombe rises confidently from his wheelchair, sets one foot in front of the other and walks steadily between the parallel bars in the rehabilitation gym of his care home.
The simple task is, as Luscombe says, amazing, given that a stroke five years ago left him unable to walk. When he moved into the home from hospital, he spent most days in a wheelchair, hunched over the weaker right side of his body.
Today the 50-year-old’s speech is limited and he cannot yet walk unaided, but he is proud of his “gradual progress” at the Peter Gidney Neurodisability Centre in Dartford, Kent. Luscombe’s care at the privately run home is funded by his local clinical commissioning group, NHS Dartford Gravesham and Swanley CCG, and the possibility that he may live independently again is, he says, thanks to the physiotherapy that is “so important” in that care.
I saw for myself how determined Paul was and how vital the role of physiotherapy is in his care when I met him last week. The full piece is in the Guardian tomorrow and online today and explains how research by the Stroke Association and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) shows that stroke survivors entering care homes are “written off” and not offered adequate rehab treatment.
New residents, according to the study, do not get a stroke-specific assessment within 72 hours of their admission, ignoring National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) stroke guidelines.