
Grimsby hospital's stroke advice prompts concerns from charity
'Journey could cost time'
In a social media post on Thursday, the trust said it had seen "a lot of instances recently" of patients arriving at the hospital.The trust said: "This is not the most appropriate place to be seen, as we don't have a hyper-acute stroke unit at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital."You should instead ring 999 if you've got symptoms and you'll be taken via ambulance to Scunthorpe General Hospital, which has the necessary facilities."If you do attend at Grimsby ED, you'll be sent to Scunthorpe via ambulance."The post received criticism from some social media users with a number of individuals questioning what could happen to them if they were taken ill.One person wrote: "Why as a member of the public in a state of emergency should we have to ensure we are heading to the right place?"Others questioned the time taken and distance they would travel to reach the hospital by ambulance.A user wrote: "The trip to Scunthorpe could add an extra 30-40 [minutes] on the journey."Another wrote: "If you live closer to Grimsby then maybe that's the natural place you'd automatically think you should go!"
'Systemic challenges'
Samantha Jones, associate director at Stroke Association, said they were "hugely grateful" to medical practitioners who were working tirelessly under extreme pressure.She said: "Despite their best efforts, systemic challenges are severely compromising ambulance response and hospital treatment times."If you spot any of the signs of a stroke in you or someone else, it's vital to call 999 straight away," she said.A spokesperson for East Midlands Ambulance Service said: "Every 999 call is assessed based on the information provided by the caller and people experiencing a life-threatening emergency are responded to as a priority."The NHS Humber Health Partnership said a hyper-acute stroke unit at Scunthorpe General Hospital provides "immediate specialist treatment and high quality care for all stroke patients in our area".The unit at Scunthorpe was opened in 2013 after an NHS report described stroke services in Grimsby as "inadequate", which led to health bosses consolidating treatment onto one site.
Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Telegraph
5 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Nurses to reject pay deal amid warnings of new NHS strikes
Nurses are to reject the Government's pay offer, raising the prospect of further strikes across the NHS. The independent pay review body has offered nurses a pay rise of 3.6 per cent for this year, which is less than the increases offered to junior doctors or consultants. The Telegraph understands nurses have 'overwhelmingly' rejected the offer, but turnout in the indicative ballot was below the 50 per cent needed to trigger industrial action. The result comes after weeks of internal unrest, with The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) officials calling the offer 'grotesque' and warning it would be 'entirely swallowed up by inflation'. The RCN has been holding a consultative vote on their 3.6 per cent pay increase, and the results are expected later this week. A union spokesman said: 'The results will be announced to our members later this week. As the largest part of the NHS workforce, nursing staff do not feel valued and the government must urgently begin to turn that around.' Doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces will all be receiving a bigger increase than nurses. Resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, were told they would be getting 5.4 per cent on average on top of the 22 per cent rise they received last year. The RCN vote will include members working in the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland, where nurses accepted an 8 per cent rise over two years, to remain the best-paid in the UK. Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN's general secretary, has repeatedly called for ministers to recognise the value of the nursing workforce, warning that pay erosion has driven thousands to leave the profession. 'Nursing is an incredible career, but despite being the most valued profession by the public we continue to be weighted to the bottom of the NHS pay scale,' Ms Ranger said last month. Speaking at an international nursing conference in Helsinki, Finland, she said: 'I'm with nurses from around the world asking why it is our ministers in the UK who have once again put nursing at the back of the queue when it comes to pay.' According to the union, there are more than 26,000 unfilled nursing posts, while student recruitment has 'collapsed' and the number quitting is 'skyrocketing'. Nurses last walked off the job in the winter of 2022–23 which was the first strike action in NHS history, staging four separate two-day walkouts. However, the union lost its strike mandate in 2023 after failing to meet the 50 per cent turnout threshold in a re-ballot. Its members previously voted to reject the 5.5 per cent pay award for 2024-25 last year, as well as the 5 per cent in 2023-24, the year before.


BBC News
5 minutes ago
- BBC News
Sevenoaks Hospital to benefit from share of £1.7m CIL funds
Projects to improve a hospital and access to the North Downs Way are among nine schemes which have been awarded Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) half of the £1,751,066.34 allocated by Sevenoaks District Council has been earmarked to help build a new headquarters for Sevenoaks Scouts and refurbish Darent House at Sevenoaks Downs National Landscape Unit has secured £329,932 to improve access to the North Downs Way for older and disabled Nigel Williams, the council's cabinet member for development and infrastructure, said the funding would "improve residents' health and wellbeing and our environment". Five parks across Swanley will benefit from a shared £131,634, while £110,000 has been allocated to the cost of a new heating and hot water system at Edenbridge Sports improvements will be made to the Valley Road footpath in Fawkham, with £20,000 allocated to help pay for a new pedestrian crossing at Dartford Road in Williams said that, since introducing CIL in 2014, the council had secured "nearly £19m in developer contributions".


BBC News
5 minutes ago
- BBC News
NHS bosses vow to minimise doctors' strike impact
The regional medical director of the NHS in north-west England says they want to "make sure that we cancel as few appointments as possible" as the current doctors' strike continues into its fourth five-day walkout by resident doctors - previously known as junior doctors - began on Friday and is due to end on Wednesday morning after the government and doctors' union British Medical Association (BMA) failed to agree on wages last is the 12th strike by doctors since 2023 in the long-running pay dispute. Dr Michael Gregory, regional medical director of the NHS, said previous strikes had a "detrimental effect particularly with outpatient appointments and electric procedures". "Certainly this time around NHS England have made a definitive push on making sure that as many operations and outpatient appointments go ahead as possible," he told BBC North West Tonight."We still have urgent emergency care and we do have urgent cancer and other priority surgeries going ahead."He added that they had "consultant cover in place where we can on most days to cover services" but "clearly there's going to be services stretched".The NHS says it wants to keep operating non-urgent services during this latest walkout as they advised patients to attend appointments unless contacted to surgeries remain open and, for urgent or non-life threatening issues, 111 continues to be the best option and for emergency care A&E or 999. Speaking near a Liverpool hospital picket line, members of the public shared a variety of responses with one woman, who previously trained as a nurse, saying she believed the medics are "amazing but I think they're also on a good wage".Another man said: "I guess the doctors need to be paid. They do work hard, they do work long hours."Another woman added: "I disagree with them being on strike because they had a pay rise last year and most people are on a minimum wage."Resident doctors comprise around half of all doctors and can earn a basic salary of £38,831 during their first foundation year after completing their medical degree. This rises to £44,439 in the second year and salaries can increase to about £70,000 after eight years. 'Pay restoration' During 2023-24, over two years, they received a 22% pay rise. From this August, they will get an extra 5.4% pay the BMA says resident doctors' pay will be 20% lower in real terms than it was in 2008, even with the increase this also argue that resident doctors may have more student debt due to the five or six-year duration of their representative Dr Mohammed Kamora, who was on the Liverpool picket line, described the latest pay increases as having "started a journey towards pay restoration" and that those on strike were "asking for parity for what we had in 2008"."That is the key to retaining our best and brightest," he Secretary Wes Streeting has said resident doctors have received the largest pay rises of any public sector employees over the past three government said it would not offer any further increases and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the walkouts threatened "to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year". Read more stories from Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X.