By Ian Dipple Thursday 25 July 2013 Updated: 25/07 08:43
CHANGES had to be made to stroke services because patients were being failed and an opportunity to save lives missed, health chiefs say.
Stroke beds at the Alexandra Hospital were closed on Wednesday (July 24) as a result of a decision taken 12 months ago to centralise care at the Worcestershire Royal into a new expanded Hyper Acute Stroke Unit with access to thrombolysis - a life-saving clot busting treatment - 24/7 which must be administered within three hours of symptoms starting to deliver the best outcomes.
The changes will potentially save 44 lives a year but the move has sparked concern amongst borough residents and politicians about increased travelling times and access issues.
Simon Hairsnape, chief officer for Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group, said they had to balance transport issues with saving lives. He added the length of hospital stay following a stroke had been reduced from three weeks to just seven days before someone could be moved for rehabilitation at the Princess of Wales Community Hospital in Bromsgrove and the decision was supported by national evidence centralisation increased survival rates.
"We had to do something we were failing patients," he told the Standard.
"This is purely clinical, it won't save us a penny and will probably cost us an bit of extra money which will be invested in a high quality stroke service."
Mr Hairsnape said they had tried to make stroke care work on both sites but performance was poor. Stroke patients are meant to spend 90 per cent of their time on a stroke ward where they have access to specialist care. But between 2010 and 2012 the figure was as low as 40 per cent and at its peak only reached 83 per cent with patients shunted onto other wards.
One of the reasons Worcester was chosen as the centre was to guarantee all residents within the county could reach it within 45 minutes. Centralisation at the Alex would have meant patients in parts of Malvern having to travel up to an hour for treatment.
Of the 400 stroke patients seen at the Alex every year, about 300 will now be treated in Worcester and 100 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Read the rest here:
Stroke care was failing patients