Concerns at stroke patients being taken to wrong hospital
8:00am Wednesday 10th October 2012 in News By Barry Nelson, Health Editor
DESPITE figures that show a new centralised stroke unit is improving treatment, councillors have voiced concerns that some patients are still not being taken to the right hospital.
Since the Darlington Memorial acute stroke unit closed in December last year, suspected stroke patients in County Durham and Darlington are meant to be taken to a stroke unit at the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham City.
Since the unit opened in January, patients have been treated more quickly.
Eighty-nine per cent of the 530 confirmed stroke patients treated between January and July this year were admitted directly to the North Durham unit.
However, councillors from Darlington Borough Council are concerned that some suspected stroke patients are still being taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital.
Councillor Tony Richmond, a member of the councils health and partnership scrutiny committee, which met yesterday, said: We have heard horror stories of patients being dumped in Darlington, but why is that?
The logic behind all of this is that we can only afford to have a centre of excellence in one place. We are surprised that patients are still being taken elsewhere.
The committee members were told that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust was ranked among the best-performing quarter of stroke units nationally.
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Concerns at stroke patients being taken to wrong hospital