Have your say on NHS proposal to send all stroke patients to Coventry

Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) has unveiled the proposals, which would see acute stroke beds at Warwick Hospital and Nuneaton's George Eliot Hospital removed, with more beds added at UHCW.

Rehabilitation beds would be completely removed from Rugby's Hospital of St Cross, with one bed added at Leamington Hospital and ten beds at George Eliot Hospital - which currently has none.

The proposals come as stroke services in Coventry and Warwickshire were found to not be meeting the latest national and regional guidance and evidence.

Although it said the overall service was being run to a good standard, the CCGs found a number of gaps in the current service, including a lack of co-ordination between doctors, nurses and specialists, struggles to recruit specialist doctors and not all people who could benefit from treatment at the acute unit in Coventry were being sent there.

An NHS document explaining the proposals states: "We considered various scenarios including keeping the services the same and as well as having a hyperacute stroke unit in Coventry, having a number of acute stroke units in different locations.

"We looked at the different scenarios and considered how many patients could be treated and whether we could staff them with the right clinicians so it was safe. We call this assessing clinical viability.

"It was agreed that the only clinically viable option for the acute phase of the stroke pathway would be to centralise hyperacute and acute services at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire.

"There is clear evidence that hyperacute stroke/acute stroke units need to treat a minimum number of cases to be able to recruit specialist staff and maintain their skills. There isn’t enough stroke activity in Coventry and Warwickshire to sustain more than one hyperacute service."

The author of the document goes on to state that some stroke rehabilitation could be done in a patient's own home.

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