Please all be aware that the proposal by NHS Somerset to close Yeovil District Hospital's Hyper Acute Stroke and Acute Stroke Care has not gone away. In the background over the last couple of months members of the QCG have been working closely with NHS Somerset to obtain answers to the significant number of concerns that remain around this proposal.

To date, QCG has yet to be given the assurances they require to be able to support the proposal put forward by NHS Somerset and Somerset Council. Most notably we continue to have major concerns over the plans to divert over 250 of YDH's current stroke patients to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester - a hospital that currently facilitates only 100 patients a year for stroke care. QCG have continually asked for a meeting with NHS Dorset, but as yet this is not forthcoming.

QCG fail to understand how a proposal put forward on "Improving acute hospital based stroke services in Somerset" actually states (in just one small area of the consultation document) that 70% of South Somerset's Stroke patients currently seen at YDH will be "outsourced" to hospitals outside of Somerset (Dorchester and Wiltshire with some in Bath).

There are two meetings scheduled over the coming months that could determine the final decision on this matter. Please if possible attend these and raise your concerns. We will shortly be posting more details on why QCG are opposed to this proposal.

9:30 am 30th November Integrated care boards Meeting - Wynford House, Lufton Way, Lufton, Yeovil, BA22 8HR
10:00am 14th December Somerset Board, County Hall, Taunton

In the meantime please continue to  share the petition via social media and email, every time someone shares this petition it gets at least one extra signature. Let's keep pushing this to get to 10,000 signatures.