Acute stroke patients will not be seen in Shrewsbury until a review of the service has been carried out, it has emerged.
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 theyll 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 didnt 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.
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Hospital stroke services to stay in Telford until review completed