AMBULANCES will take Waverley residents with suspected strokes to Frimley Park Hospital not Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH), under new health care proposals that go out to public consultation next month.

Suspected stroke victims are already being taken to Frimley Park under “interim” measures introduced by RSCH NHS Foundation and Guildford and Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), on January 9.

Haslemere residents raised “serious concern” about relocating patients to Frimley Park.

They objected that adding a longer journey to the average 30-minute wait for a South East Coast Ambulance (SECAmb) to arrive, could endanger the lives of stroke victims.

The Waverley CCG is now recommending stroke care will be improved if the interim measures are made permanent and borough residents are treated at the hyper acute stroke unit at Frimley Park. Guildford residents will be treated at the hyper acute stroke unit at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey.

The CCG said statistics showed that centralising care saves more lives and improves health outcomes following a stroke and patients would be treated more quickly at a hyper acute stroke unit offering more centralised clinical expertise.

The aim under the new model is for six stroke consultants to be based at Frimley Park in order to deliver an expert seven-day service.

This week, Waverley CCG chairman Dr David Eyre-Brook told The Herald: “Independent expert South East Coast Clinical Senate says the critical time from making an emergency call to hospital arrival should be no longer than two hours.

“SECAmb will make the judgement if it is a stroke and inform Frimley Park so everyone is on standby.

“Previously, stroke patients arriving at RSCH could see two stroke consultants but they were not there all the time. In the units, it will be 24/7, because timing is critical both in the first two hours and the first three days.

“We are working with SECAmb to improve its call-out times. Nationally, there is huge concern and it knows it needs get better. SECAmb has been involved as part of the stroke review and knows it’s about that two hours.

“We are monitoring its performance very closely during the interim measures for stroke patients.

“The stroke care proposals are not about saving money but about co-ordinating care better with some additional investment in the service to give better quality.”

Urging as many residents as possible to respond to the proposals, borough councillor Robert Knowles, who is also a Haslemere Hospital League of Friends committee member, said: “It is vital residents from this neglected area make their voices heard at the consultation meetings.

“The poor ambulance response times and the decision to only provide stroke services along the M3 corridor, leaving a huge void between Chertsey and Portsmouth, is a cause for serious concern.

“This means a long journey for patients in the town, and the surrounding areas, and personal experience this year has shown long waits for the ambulance to get to Haslemere.

“From experience it’s never under 30 minutes. This would then be followed by a long journey to a remote hospital. NHS protocol says people should be within 30 minutes of a hospital and this doesn’t comply.

“It seems NHS services in Surrey are only provided in the north of the county, and it is fine if one lives in the M3 corridor, as there will be facilities in Chertsey, Frimley, Basingstoke and Winchester, so never more than 15 minutes away.

“But for the rural south of the county, the wait could be fatal. I know you need centres of excellence, but with ambulance service times being so poor and SECAmb in special measures, such a long journey is frightening.”

The 12-week public consultation begins on Monday, February 6, and runs until Sunday, April 30, with a meetting being planned for Haslemere.