24 April 2018
Thank you to everyone who took part in the consultation on urgent stroke services. The consultation closed on Friday 20 April and all feedback is now being analysed.
Patricia Davies, senior responsible officer for the stroke review, said: “During the consultation we’ve heard a range of views from people across Kent, Medway and the surrounding areas. There have been some important points made covering travel times, links to rehabilitation services, recruitment and many other topics.
“All the feedback is now being analysed by an independent research company. They will produce a report for the stroke review team and the joint committee of ten clinical commissioning groups to consider.
“Alternatives suggested during the consultation will be evaluated and viable options included in the report to identify a preferred option. We expect to be ready for the CCGs to make a final decision at a public meeting in the autumn.”
The consultation feedback includes:
- 2240 responses to the online questionnaire
- 299 hard copy questionnaires
- Notes from 28 public listening events attended by 850 people
- Notes from meetings hosted by others where we discussed the proposals
- Notes from consultation events with staff in NHS trusts
- 701 telephone interviews
- 442 face to face discussions through focus groups, street surveys and outreach engagement
- 500+ email / postal / phone comments and questions
- 500+ comments and questions through social media
- 1521 postcard responses and a petition with ~3500 signatures received from a group in Thanet
The feedback report will identify all the main themes from the consultation responses. Notes from engagement events during the consultation and responses from organisations/groups will be published in due course as part of the feedback report. Individual comments will not be published as they may contain personal identifiable information which respondents did not wish to be made public.
A detailed report on all our consultation activity and publicity is also being produced and will be published alongside the feedback report.
Next steps
A summary of the process to identify the final preferred option is available here. To stay in touch with the next steps of the stroke review sign up to our newsletter at www.kentandmedway.nhs.uk/subscribe/
Background
The consultation was about proposals to establish hyper acute stroke units in Kent and Medway, whether three is the right number of units, and five location options. It ran from 2 February to 20 April 2018; led by the 10 clinical commissioning groups of Ashford, Bexley, Canterbury and Coastal, Dartford Gravesham and Swanley, High Weald Lewes Havens, Medway, South Kent Coast, Swale, Thanet, and West Kent.
The consultation document and a range of supporting materials are available online at www.kentandmedway.nhs.uk/stroke
