By Local Democracy Reporter Ciaran Duggan
A south east ambulance boss says there are “green shoots of recovery” over wait times for stroke patients being transported to Kent hospitals.
Ray Savage, South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) strategy and partnerships manager, says the response time for Kent residents is improving.
It comes amid concerns over ambulance arrival delays. Targets have been set at 18 minutes, but average wait times for patients, suffering from a potential stroke, was 34 minutes in October 2021 and 26 minutes in January 2022.
This is due to “unprecedented demand” for paramedics amid the pandemic and extra “challenges” of staff shortages and ambulance hand over delays, according to the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
However, health chiefs say radical improvements are being made, including greater emphasis on remote diagnosis of patients and more active input from stroke doctors.
Mr Savage said: “We are seeing green shoots of recovery from what was a difficult position in 2021 and throughout 2020.”
He added: “We are in a place where we are starting to see some recovery, which is encouraging.
“As we are coming out of this latest Covid wave, I am sure that will continue.”
His comments were made in front of a panel of county councillors at County Hall in Maidstone on Wednesday (January 26).
KCC’s health scrutiny committee was told about the transition to hyper acute stroke units, with the number of stroke units in Kent halving from six to three.
Last November Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced three hyper acute stroke units (HASUs) will be created in Kent and Medway.
They will be based at Maidstone Hospital, Darent Valley in Dartford and Ashford’s William Harvey over the next two years.
Work has already started on their reconfiguration as stroke services will be lost at Medway Maritime Hospital, QEQM in Margate and Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
Rachel Jones, executive director for strategy and population health at Kent and Medway CCG, said “We have made some significant improvements.
“The patients of Kent and Medway are now getting much better stroke services than they were two years ago.”
However, concerns have been raised over high travel times and staffing levels.
Ramsgate county councillor Karen Constantine (Lab) said the “devil will be in the detail” over the stroke unit reconfiguration.
She said: “In Thanet, we feel like we are being thrown to the wolves. There is incredible worry still of the stroke unit being relocated to William Harvey.”
However, Romney Marsh county councillor Tony Hills (Con) gave a more optimistic outlook.
He said: “Since the pandemic, I have not had one complaint about ambulance journey times in my area. I think 26 minutes is pretty good.”
Cllr Paul Bartlett (Con), who is KCC’s health scrutiny chair, said it was “difficult” to drawn any conclusions over the stroke unit changes at such an early stage.
New hyper acute stroke units are expected to go live in Darent Valley and Maidstone hospitals by mid-2023.
Extensive estate work is required at the William Harvey in Ashford and will take longer to deliver. This is hoped to be completed by late 2023.
