Key stroke treatment still not available around the clock across England

More than 100,000 people a year in the UK have a stroke, of whom 38,000 die and many others are left with life-changing disabilities. Photograph: Puwadol Jaturawutthichai/Alamy

The NHS has not made a “life-changing” treatment for stroke available around the clock across England despite ministers repeatedly promising that it would.

The health service was expected to improve stroke care by making a clot removal technique called mechanical thrombectomy available everywhere in the country 24/7 from 1 April.