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The consultation period on the future of urgent stroke services in Kent and Medway - which would see the loss of services at QEQM - has now opened.
The NHS is asking for people’s views on proposals to establish new 24/7 hyper acute stroke units across the county.
The consultation runs from today for 10 weeks until midnight on Friday, April 13.
To take part, people can read the consultation document, participate in public meetings and events, and complete an online or postal questionnaire.
There will also be specific engagement through focus groups and other work with people whose views are less likely to be heard, and people whose age, ethnicity or other factors puts them at higher risk of a stroke.
Dr Mike Gill, independent chair of the Joint Committee of Clinical Commissioning Groups for Kent and Medway Hyper Acute and Acute Stroke Services said: “This consultation is an opportunity to make your voice heard and help us design the best stroke services in Kent and Medway.
"We encourage everyone to respond, whether you have been involved in the earlier work or not; whether you work in the local NHS or are a resident; whether you have first-hand experience of stroke or not. All views are important to us.”
The proposal has faced backlash from people in Thanet, with health campaigner Cllr Karen Constantine saying it is "extremely worrying" that QEQM's stroke services are under threat.
Tomorrow, a demonstration will be held outside the hospital and the avid health campaigner has also set up a petition to rival the proposal.
Cllr Constantine’s petition, which is directed to Thanet CCG clinical chair Dr Tony Martin, can be found here
She said: “I am so worried about this. I can see a pattern evolving and it’ll be a gradual hollowing out of services at QEQM.
“It is essentially cost cutting. The NHS’s campaign to act fast on strokes is completely gone against here.
“If people in Thanet need to get to Ashford, it takes an hour in good traffic, and that’s the same for ambulances.
“Ashford is simply too far away. Life-saving stroke treatment should not be cut due to reducing funding in our NHS."
At the moment there are no hyper acute stroke units in Kent and Medway, and urgent stroke care is provided at six hospitals.
The NHS says that the changes to stroke services are being proposed because currently hospitals are not able to consistently deliver the standard and quality of stroke care that people should be able to expect.
The proposals have been developed by stroke doctors and other stroke specialists.
The proposals recommend creating three hyper acute stroke units in Kent and Medway and give five different options for where these three new units could be located.
If the proposals go ahead, urgent stroke services would not be provided in other hospitals in Kent and Medway.
Each of the proposed hyper acute sites would also have an acute stroke unit to give patients expert care after the first 72 hours until they are ready to leave hospital, and a clinic for assessing and treating transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs or mini strokes).
The shortlist of possible locations is:
The order of the shortlist is not a ranking and no preferred option will be identified until doctors and others taking the decision about the future organisation of stroke services have fully and carefully considered all the evidence and data available, including feedback from the public consultation.
Dr David Hargroves, clinical lead for the stroke review and senior stroke consultant at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said: “I am delighted that we’re launching this consultation today.
"There is clear evidence that patients benefit most from being treated at a hyper acute stroke unit in the first 72 hours after their stroke, even if that means ambulances driving past the nearest A&E department to get to one.
“We know that patients might currently be able to get to an A&E fairly quickly and the thought of travelling further seems to go against the ‘Act F.A.S.T.’ advice.
"With stroke, what counts is the total time it takes from calling 999 to having a scan and starting the right treatment.
"Spending 15 minutes in an ambulance but waiting three hours in A&E is worse than an hour in an ambulance going to a specialist unit that can scan you and start treatment within 30 minutes of arrival.
"It is also vital for patients’ recovery that over those first three days they are seen by a stroke consultant every day, and regularly assessed by specialist therapists – something we can’t always offer at the moment.”
But the removal of QEQM's stroke services would mean victims in Thanet will have less chance of survival, parliamentary researcher Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt has claimed.
Dr Gordon-Nesbitt, who lives in Thanet and is a specialist on health policy, says: "The new proposals will mean that Thanet stroke victims would have to travel to Ashford rather than Margate. This much longer journey would exceed the one-hour maximum that most authorities say is essential to a stroke victim’s outcomes.
"The very presence of an HASU attracts staff to an area. Combined with the arrival of professionals to Thanet from London and elsewhere, I do not accept that staffing can be used as a pretext to discriminate against Thanet."
A spokesperson for the Save Our NHS In Kent said: “We are calling for the best possible service for stroke patients across Kent.
"Why not have hyper active stroke units both in Ashford and in Thanet? We should have services where there is patient need.
"We suspect that behind these proposals there are financial considerations — which is disgraceful.”
