Yeovil Hospital could lose emergency stroke care services

A hospital could still lose its emergency stroke care services as new plans show some less urgent beds could be saved.

Health campaigners said the plans for Yeovil District Hospital in Somerset were “a step in the right direction”.

NHS Somerset is still looking at ending emergency stroke treatment, given in the first 72 hours, at the hospital.

But a proposal to close all stroke care could now be dropped.

Revised proposals would now keep some services at the hospital to care for people in the days and weeks after a stroke.

Health bosses had been consulting on two options for stroke care in Somerset.

Both options would have seen Yeovil District Hospital lose its hyper-acute unit which provides emergency stroke services.

Those include brain scans and clot-busting drugs given as soon as possible after a stroke, as well as care given for the following 72 hours.

An option which would also have seen a further 12 acute stroke beds removed could now be dropped when NHS Somerset’s governing body meets on Thursday.

Quicksilver Community Group in Yeovil collected more than 7,000 signatures on a petition to save stroke services in the town.

Chair of the group Ray Tostevin called the changes “a good development”.

“We are still concerned that if we were to lose our hyper-acute stroke unit – the emergency care of the first 72 hours – it would still potentially mean that some stroke patients would not necessarily get the care they need in the first critical hours,” added Mr Tostevin.

“It is a step in the right direction but we still want more detail about how the acute stroke unit that would stay, would work.”

Dr Bernie Marden, chief medical officer of NHS Somerset, said: “We have listened to what people have told us and undertaken detailed analysis of the options that were taken to public consultation.

“The final decision-making business case is expected to be considered by the NHS Somerset Board in January. This review focuses on creating safe and sustainable stroke services in Somerset with 24/7 emergency stroke care, and is not about saving money,” Dr Marden said.