A stroke unit is present at both the hospitals, Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. But for a long time, they have become a topic of discussion among medical experts.

They are of the view that rather than providing stroke services at two places at a sub-standard level, it should be combined at one place where proper world class care could be provided. Earlier it was being planned to have single stroke care unit at Alexandra but now more weight is given to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

However there would be one problem at Royal Hospital to have single stroke unit. It would be of shortage of staff to manage the additional rush. The hospital is already suffering from increased patients’ visits and once cardiac unit gets centralized then it would be going to be a total chaos there.

Dr. Charles Ashton, who is medical director at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said, “The highest scoring option was to centralize stroke services in Worcester but that was felt not to be practical immediately because of the pressure we have on capacity in Worcester”.

Whether to centralize the stroke unit or not would involve a lot of discussions as they have to consider patients comfort also. Ashton said patient is their first priority and reason to combine both the facilities at one place is to provide better care to stroke patients. For now both the hospitals would be having active stroke unit.

It has been found that if patient is given complete stroke bed care then he has 90% chances of survival as well as fewer chances to face permanent disability. Their current target is to increase the survival rate among those who suffer stroke. Services would only get centralized if it would provide best care to stroke patients.