Hospital stroke services to stay in Telford until review completed

Stroke services were temporarily moved to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford because of a shortage of consultants, although stroke rehabilitation services remain at both sites.

The move had sparked fears that the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital might lose out and a petition calling for stroke and accident and emergency services to remain in the county town has now been signed by almost 8,500 people.

But health chief insist patients are now getting faster access to stroke treatment than before.

At the annual general meeting of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust yesterday, health bosses insisted no decisions had been made about the future of either hospital, but admitted stroke services would remain in Telford for the time being.

Councillor Joy Jones, of Newtown, who set up the petition, asked chief executive Peter Herring if services would move back to Shrewsbury and if not, whether it would mean the town would also lose its full A&E department.

Mr Herring said: "We did move stroke services temporarily to Telford because we were a consultant down. We have now found that because we centralised all our services on one site, our patients are getting speedier access to stroke treatment.

"So while one might think that it is further away so they'll get less access to treatment, the opposite is actually true.

"It is a temporary measure, but there is a national strategy to centralise the services on one site.That decision has not been made. That will inform the debate that will take place over the next few months but we have agreed to continue on one site while the review is undertaken."

Mr Herring added that it "didn't follow" that stroke services and A&E had to be on the same site. He also insisted that no decision over the future of A&Es had been taken.

He said: "No proposals exist about configuration of services at this time. There's enormous speculation, largely focused on A&E, but there are no firm proposals. This isn't about coming up with a fait accompli. It's about coming clean with the population of Shropshire and Telford and Mid Wales about the challenges we face and to give them our expert opinion, but ask them how they think we can best meet those challenges."

Adrian Osborne, Communications Director at the Trust, said: "Earlier this summer the Trust unified hyper acute and acute stroke services at the Princess Royal Hospital in response to some short term consultant vacancies. This step was taken to ensure that we could continue to provide vital stroke services within the county's main hospitals. Specialist stroke rehabilitation services continue to be provided at both PRH and RSH by expert and experienced staff.

"National evidence is clear that providing hyper acute stroke services from a smaller number of specialist sites can significantly improve outcomes for patients in terms of reduced mortality, reduced disability and shorter recovery times. This must be our goal in the NHS – to provide safe care with minimum delay and the best outcomes for patients.

"It became clear during the summer that whilst single site hyper-acute and acute stroke services was intended as short term measure, we were seeing tangible benefits that could not be ignored. Hospital clinicians asked for more time to review this. This is currently underway with a decision expected in the next few weeks. This will therefore decide the best way to provide safe and timely stroke services for at least the year ahead. All options remain open, including returning to a two site service.

"Local GP commissioners are leading a wider review of the county's health services over the next six to nine months, and this is will include agreeing the longer term stroke service for the county."