The NHS in Kent and Medway have now published their preferred option for three new specialist ‘hyper acute stroke units’.  They are proposing that the units will be at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Maidstone Hospital and William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

If the stroke unit at Pembury Hospital is closed, the nearest alternative unit will be over 40 minutes drive away from Crowborough.  This is because following similar reorganisations in East Sussex, stroke services were centralised at Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The aim is to reorganise services so that specialist stroke staff can more consistently deliver high quality care(NOT RESULTS! YOU LAZY FUCKING BASTARDS. ) around the clock, and in so doing reduce deaths and long-term disability from stroke for local people.  A key evaluation criteria used in the review process is can patients reach a hyper acute stroke unit within a reasonable time frame.  The ambition to offer those stroke patients who need them (only 15-20% of stroke patients do) clot-busting drugs within 120 minutes of calling 999 with stroke symptoms.
Earlier this year, local doctors, other clinicians, stroke survivors, and the general public, were asked to submit their comments on a shortlist of five options.   Only two of the five shortlisted options included Tunbridge Wells Hospital as one of the three hyper acute stroke units.  Over over 5,000 responses were generated.  One of the challenges the NHS is facing, is recruiting and retaining doctors and nurses for this specialist area of medicine.
The next stage in the review process is to develop a detailed document that will describe how the preferred option was selected and set out an implementation plan that will cover areas such as workforce, estates and capital requirement.  A Joint Committee of the ten local NHS clinical commissioning groups will examine this and then make a final decision on the future shape of urgent stroke services in December 2018 or January 2019.
Over the next few months the NHS will be gathering views and feedback on the proposed new approach to rehabilitation from stroke survivors, their families and carers, front-line staff, local councillors and the public to help inform detailed implementation plans.(This is where you SCREAM  for solutions to all these  problems in stroke.)

1. Only 10% of patients get to full recovery.
2. tPA only fully works to reverse the stroke 12% of the time. Known since 1996.
3. No protocols to prevent your 33% dementia chance post-stroke from an Australian study.
4. Nothing to alleviate your fatigue.
5. Nothing that will cure your spasticity.
6. Nothing on cognitive training unless you find this yourself.
7. No published stroke protocols.
8. No way to compare your stroke hospital results vs. other stroke hospitals.


Look out for further information on the Kent and Medway NHS website: www.kentandmedway.nhs.uk/stroke.