Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Uncertain future for stroke units
Exclusive
Kent and Canterbury Hospital could lose its beleaguered stroke unit under secretive plans being drawn up by the NHS.
The unit at the city’s hospital is one of seven facing threat of closure as trust managers thrash out ways of consolidating the county’s healthcare.
Stroke patients currently receive urgent treatment at seven local hospitals across eight different clinical commissioning groups.
These are Kent and Canterbury Hospital, William Harvey Hospital, QEQM Hospital, Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Medway Foun- dation Trust, Maidstone Hospital and Darent Valley Hospital.
But commissioners are considering adopting a model where concentrated stroke care is offered at just three of these, the Gazette can reveal.
Each stroke unit offers specialist teams of doctors, nurses and therapists who provide 24/7 treatment to stroke victims.
The care these people receive in the first 72 hours can make the difference between life and death and life-long disability.
With locations yet to be identified, Kent and Canterbury Hospital’s stroke unit faces an uncertain future.
As exclusively reported by the KM Group last month, the NHS is in the process of creating a series of Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPS) – partnering hospital trusts with local authorities and other groups to decide how patients in England will be treated in future.
The plans in Kent and Medway aim to meet rising demand, improve patient outcomes and move a huge number of services out of acute hospitals into the community.
It is part of a national bid to cut at least £22 billion by 2020. So far there has been no wider consultation.
An urgent review and public consultation on the stroke service was launched last year after managers identified a catalogue of problems including poor performance, low staffing levels and poor outcomes for patients.
Units were found to be inconsistent and not always meeting the national benchmarks.
Viv Pritchard, chairman of the League of Friends of Kent and Canterbury Hospital, said: “We’re aware that the restructuring is being discussed and that there’s going to be consultation later this year.
“Hospital managers have their problems and they have got to sort them out. We will look at those plans when they come through.”
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