Call for review of Yeovil emergency stroke service closure

Campaigners want stroke services at Yeovil District Hospital to be protected

Somerset Council will write to the secretary of state to review the decision to end emergency care for stroke patients at Yeovil District Hospital.

Last month, NHS Somerset's Integrated Care Board (ICB) voted to have a single emergency stroke unit for the county at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

The ICB said it would lead to "better outcomes for patients".

The council's scrutiny committee has voted for the decision to be reviewed.

Under the ICB plans, Yeovil District Hospital will keep 12 acute stroke beds where people can be cared for from 72 hours after a stroke, but it will lose its four hyper-acute beds.

Ray Tostevin, the chair of the Quicksilver Community Group, asked for the decision to be rethought.

Speaking on Thursday at Somerset Council's scrutiny committee for adults and health, he asked members to approach the secretary of state to officially call-in the NHS Somerset stroke reconfiguration plans.

He said the ICB voted unanimously to close the emergency stroke unit at Yeovil "despite widespread and continuing opposition from the public, patient groups, and NHS staff".

Mr Tostevin also told the committee it "expressed serious concerns at the ICB proposals" when members met in December.

He said he was worried some stroke patients might not get the care they needed in the first critical hours.

NHS Somerset's business case said the change "would provide a larger and more sustainable specialist stroke workforce, which would enable faster decision making... leading to improved outcomes".

Somerset Council's scrutiny committee voted 6 to 1 to ask the secretary of state to use their powers under the Health And Care Act 2022 to intervene in the decision.

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