In our update last month we announced the agreed dates for putting our regional stroke service in place. To recap;
- From 1 July 2019 – the hyper acute stroke service will cease at Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust. After this point, the majority of Rotherham’s hyper acute stroke patients will be taken by ambulance for treatment at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield - with the remaining being taken to the hyper acute stroke site at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, depending on which is the closest.
- From 1 October 2019 - the hyper acute stroke service will cease at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This will mean that Barnsley patients will be taken to one of the regional hyper acute stroke centres - predominantly Doncaster Royal Infirmary or Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, depending on which is the closest.
We’ve received agreement and assurance from all partners that there are no issues affecting the changes being made by these dates.
Next steps: agreeing our ways of working
We are working together to develop our region-wide Patient Flow Policy which will outline the agreement from all partners for the timely, safe and appropriate transfer of patients between our hospitals. Outlining the standards we can expect to work to, the policy will allow us to make sure we’re all working with the same approach; making sure our patients are always cared for in the most appropriate place. Our clinicians have been involved in developing this policy which will need to be agreed by all partners before we “go live” in July.
The implementation of these new ways of working will be supported by the region’s hosted networks which will be developed over the coming months.
Next steps: patient information
Having already been informed by clinicians, we’re working with patients, stroke survivors and members of the public to develop patient information materials for anyone in our region who has a stroke and is cared for by our regional service.
If you would like to be involved in this, please get in touch with sophie.jones25@nhs.net
Next steps: recruitment
As mentioned last month, to support the changes we need to recruit some additional staff to care for the additional patients who will be initially treated at the hyper acute stroke units in Doncaster, Sheffield and Wakefield. Adverts are already on NHS Jobs for posts based in Sheffield and we can expect to see vacancies in Doncaster and Mid Yorkshire being advertised in the coming weeks.
We will be issuing monthly updates but if you would like more information on any of the above, please get in touch at helloworkingtogether@nhs.net