NHS Trust is planning to permanently remove all stroke services from Scarborough (and therefore Bridlington) to be replaced with the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) at York – or possibly Hull or Middlesbrough. This is extremely bad for all of us in the coastal communities and is the exact opposite of what Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty is recommending.
The problem is the “Time to Treat”. The national target is 88 minutes which includes getting an ambulance to you, initial assessment, transport to Hyper Acute Unit and then up to 30 minutes “door to needle” in HASU. The graphic attached shows that this will be almost impossible to achieve for Bridlington residents – with 160 minutes being much more likely.
There is a possible solution.. that they don’t close the Scarborough unit but link it with fast digital services to York or Hull HASU – then the scans can be done at the coast but assessed by experts in York HASU because they’re on-screen anyway – then any treatment administered by the professionals in Scarborough under the direction of the experts at HASU – thusly avoiding all the dangers of prolonged travel.
It is the ERYCCG – Clinical Commissioning Group’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 21st September at 5pm, everyone is invited and Councillors will be putting questions directly to them about stroke services for coastal communities along with possible solutions. Their Annual General Meeting will be live-streamed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj4BTjPL-ES28vRxlx81vnw
York Trust’s axe is now aimed at Scarborough and the services upon which we rely.
