Stroke And Major Trauma Consultation Comes To An End, London

Main Category: Stroke
Article Date: 12 May 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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The London-wide consultation on improving stroke and major trauma care has now closed.

The public consultation (The shape of things to come), part of Lord Darzi's ten year vision for the capital 'Healthcare for London', looked at the location and coverage of potential sites for specialist stroke and major trauma centres.

The consultation, which lasted for over three months, was aimed at staff, patients, residents, commuters, representative groups, unions, elected representatives and anyone with an interest in, or might use, London health services.

The consultation proposed an extra £23m a year to be invested in delivering improved stroke care and up to £12m would be invested in the major trauma centres, along with improvements to all A&Es in London.

Over 7,400 individuals and organisations responded to the consultation, which closed on 8 May 2009.

The consultation included:

- 46 health fairs which took place in hospitals, shopping centres, town halls and leisure centres and attracted over 13,000 visitors;
- 125,000 consultation documents distributed across London
- engagement with over 29 'traditionally under-represented' groups
- summary consultation documents translated into 15 languages, Braille, large print; Audio and MP3 (for the internet), easy-read (for learning disability groups) and easy-access (for people with aphasia)

Ipsos Mori, the independent analysts, will present the findings in July 2009.

David Sissling, Programme Director for Healthcare for London, said: "We are delighted with the number of people who have taken an interest in our proposals and who have taken the time to respond to the consultation. We have been struck by the quality of contributions we have received. We have argued that doing nothing is not an option, and Londoners have recognised this. "

The joint committee of primary care trusts (JCPCT) will consider the responses to the consultation and announce their decisions in July 2009.

Notes

1. For further information contact Rob Williams on 020 7932 9094

2. The Stroke and Trauma consultation document is available at http://www.healthcareforlondon.nhs.uk

3. The proposals in Healthcare for London: The Shape of Things to Come take forward those outlined in July 2007, in a ground-breaking report A Framework for Action, by Professor Lord Darzi, before he became a minister in the Government's health team.

4. The new stroke services would start to be delivered from early 2010. Stroke is the second biggest killer in London and the most common cause of disability - around 11,500 Londoners suffer a stroke each year, about one person every hour.

5. Major trauma centres would deal only with the most serious cases, such as badly injured car crash victims and patients with life-threatening knife and gunshot wounds.

6. London currently only has one major trauma unit at the Royal London Hospital and this would be boosted to four. Healthcare for London works on behalf of 31 primary care trusts in London. The programme aims to make health services in the capital better, safer and more accessible. This includes developing specialist stroke and trauma centres, better access to GPs, out of hours and more outpatient care in the community.

7. Ipsos MORI were commissioned to receive and analyse all responses to the consultation.

Source
Healthcare for London

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