Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has launched a 12-week public consultation in a bid to establish a Comprehensive Stroke Centre in the area.
The change in services would result in additional funding, including a one-off £4million investment.
However, two Merseyside hospitals will lose their stroke services if the stroke centre plans go ahead.
The proposed centre would bring together the hyper-acute care currently provided at the Royal Liverpool and Southport hospitals to Aintree University Hospital.
The Aintree site includes the Walton Centre, which provides specialist thrombectomy treatments.
The CCG hopes that bringing the services together will help overcome the shortage of medical staff and give more patients the care they need during the critical 72-hour period.
Dr Claire Cullen, Stroke Consultant, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said:
“We want to give people the best chance of accessing specialist treatments for stroke, as soon as possible within that critical 72-hour window – and that’s what this proposal is all about.
“Many of us know that acting fast is extremely important when it comes to stroke – but this doesn’t just mean getting someone to the nearest hospital; it’s important that they are seen by specialist stroke staff who can provide a diagnosis and make decisions about the best treatment for that individual.
“As well as increasing the use of clot-busting and clot-removing treatments for patients, we also believe that bringing local services together would increase the number of patients who are treated on a specialist stroke ward – all of which can make a massive difference to patient outcomes.”
Dr Paddy McDonald, Stroke Consultant, Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust said that some patients would face longer journeys to hospital.
However, the more ‘joined up’ care would ensure that patients received better treatment when they arrived.
He said: “This is an approach that we know has already been shown to improve care for stroke patients in other parts of the country, and we believe that our local population should also have access to the very best quality of care.”
The consultation runs until February 14, 2022. Share your views here.
