Community pharmacy teams could help save thousands of lives by raising awareness of the symptoms and risk factors for stroke, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Wales has claimed.

The call follows a new survey from the Stroke Association, which found that over one-third of patients who had suffered a mini-stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) initially dismissed it as ‘a funny turn’, while just one in five dialled 999.

Almost half of TIA patients said that their symptoms didn’t feel like an emergency, while a quarter of healthcare professionals didn’t spot the signs of a TIA. Mair Davies, chair of the Welsh Pharmacy Board, urged pharmacists to identify patients at risk of stroke and support them to “talk about their individual risks, what, if any, lifestyle changes they could make to help reduce their risk, but most importantly, what are the signs to look out for.”