MP Craig Mackinlay has been accused of “failing people at risk of stroke in his constituency”.
Labour parliamentary candidate Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, who will fight the South Thanet seat at the next election, has criticised the MP because she says he has failed to raise in Parliament the threatened closure of the stroke unit at Margate’s QEQM Hospital.
If a plan for three hyper-acute stroke services across Kent goes ahead it would see the closure of the service at QEQM, against which campaigners have protested tirelessly.
Dr Gordon-Nesbitt said: “The ending of stroke services in Thanet would mean that people would have to travel to a hospital in Ashford almost 40 miles away.
“The option of retaining stroke services in Thanet wasn’t included in the recent NHS consultation – which is in itself an outrage and makes a mockery of the consultation process.
“If the closure goes ahead, Thanet will be among the very few places in the UK more than an hour away from a stroke unit.
“Clinical evidence has shown this will mean less chance of a good outcome.
“Does Craig Mackinlay really think people’s lives in Thanet count for less than those in the rest of the country?”
Read the full article here: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/mp-defends-action-over-stroke-service-187195/
