HEALTH Secretary Jeremy Hunt has pledged to improve “failing” South East Coast Ambulance (SECAmb) response times, amid mounting concerns it won’t get emergency stroke victims from Haslemere to hospital within the critical first two hours.

The deadline for responses to controversial NHS plans to relocate emergency stroke care provision from Guildford to Frimley Park Hospital closed on Sunday, April 30, but objectors fear it is a “done deal”.

If agreed, Frimley Park will operate a 24/7 hyper acute stroke unit (HASU) and SECAmb – which is already in special measures, will take suspected stroke patients there and not to the Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH).

Objectors in Haslemere and surrounding areas protested against the move – both at a recent meeting in the town held by Guildford and Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group(CCG) and at a further public meeting held as part of the NHS consultation at the RSCH, in Guildford, last Thursday.

Responding to the local outcry, Mr Hunt, who is the Tory MP for South West Surrey, convened a meeting to address the concerns raised with the NHS England clinical director for stroke, Professor Tony Rudd and SECAmb chief executive officer Daren Mochrie.

The stroke ‘summit’ was also attended by Waverley leader Farnham councillor Julia Potts, CCG chairman Dr David Eyre-Brook and Haslemere borough councillor Robert Knowles.

It was agreed Mr Mochrie would report back with SECAmb response times in the south and east of Waverley by the end of June and Professor Rudd would work with him to ensure the service was up to speed.

A second ‘summit’ will be held in July to check SECAmb’s ability to provide a “fit for purpose service” and also to discuss where stroke patients should receive rehabilitation after discharge from Frimley.

Objectors have urged rehabilitation should be at Milford Hospital not Farnham Hospital, as it would be closer.

Following last week’s meeting, Mr Hunt also announced yesterday (Wednesday) in a pre-election statement, that improving the SECAmb service was one of his four key priorities for the town, as he is “concerned at repeated reports ambulance response times in Haslemere are too slow”.

The town’s stroke healthcare concerns were taken up by Mr Knowles at last week’s full council meeting, when he asked how the borough council had responded to the consultation and was told Waverley had asked Mr Hunt to broker a meeting with the key players and intended to respond in full to the consultation.

Stepping up the pressure, Haslemere Mayor Sahran Abeysundara fired off a hard-hitting letter to Dr Eyre-Brook, objecting that the town council disagreed “fundamentally with the planned location” of emergency stroke services and condemned the proposals as “illogical and dangerous”.

The letter concluded: “The perception is the CCG has ceded too much responsibility for this issue to the North West Surrey CCG, and the result is an outcome which suits that part of the county. It does not suit those elsewhere, especially those south of Guildford.”