Press release from Cranleigh Patients’ Participation Group (PPG) – 18 April 2017
On Saturday 22 April in Village Way, outside the Co-op food store between 10 am and 12.30 members of Cranleigh Patients’ Participation Group (PPG) will be explaining their worries about the proposed changes to provision for stroke patients in Waverley and asking local residents to complete the consultation on the plans.
Members of the PPG will also ask residents to sign their petition to the CCG and NHS England to make sure the worries in the villages is heard loud and clear.
In brief, the proposals are that patients from Cranleigh suspected of having a stroke be taken to Frimley Hospital to the new hyper acute unit there. After stabilisation, they would then be sent to Farnham Hospital or Woking for further rehabilitation or sent directly home under “early supported discharge”.
The Cranleigh Patients’ Group is recommending to all Cranleigh Patients to call for
- Excellent & reliable rapid access to the hyper-acute stroke unit in Frimley Park Hospital
- In–hospital rehabilitation in an acute stroke unit in Royal County Hospital Guildford, accessible to Cranleigh & Ewhurst patients &their families
- A first-class network of specialist stroke rehabilitation physiotherapists, speech & occupational therapists based nearby to support stroke patients after discharge from hospital
It must be emphasised that the PPG fully supported the need to create hyper-acute specialised units and they stress to that those are the best places to treat stroke patients in the first instance.
ENDS
DETAILS OF THE CONSULTATION
The online consultation on the Guildford and Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group website closes on 30 April
http://www.guildfordandwaverleyccg.nhs.uk/page1.aspx?p=20
For further information contact Lynda MacDermott
Chair – Cranleigh Patients’ Participation Group
07779251890
The PPG’s Concerns
The PPG has deep concerns about the safety of the wider proposals put forward for patients who live in rural Waverley for a variety of reasons. The main ones are the following:-
- An inadequate ambulance service.
SECAM, the present emergency ambulance provider, has recently been assessed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as “inadequate” both for the times it takes to reach patients and the training and retention of skilled paramedic staff. - The traffic congestion between Cranleigh, Guildford and Frimley is extreme and even in off peak times the time to reach the proposed hospitals will be critical
Cranleigh to Frimley Park hospital = 23.3 miles
Cranleigh – RSCH = 11miles
- It is very difficult, nigh on impossible, to reach either Farnham or Woking by public transport for family and friends to visit and support family members who have had a stroke and need that extra emotional support. Both are 17 miles away from Cranleigh.
- There is a lack of stroke specialised physiotherapists and speech and language therapists in the community to support patients who are sent home, especially if that is only after 3 days in the hyper-acute unit without step down time.
