NHS Next Stage Review

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Children, Schools and Families – in the House of Commons at 3:31 pm on 30 June 2008.

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Photo of Iain Duncan Smith Iain Duncan Smith Conservative, Chingford and Woodford Green 3:31, 30 June 2008

One reason why people in my area of Waltham Forest are very resistant to any of these new plans is that, rather like many other people, they have just survived a "fit for the future" programme that was a disaster, in which the PCT managers rode roughshod over all the public's views and attempted to close down one of their hospitals. That was stopped eventually, such was the outcry, but they remain very sceptical about this.

For example, people are told that, in north-east London, stroke centres will save lives, but we know now from clinicians that unless someone gets to a stroke centre within two hours and starts the treatment, it will have no further effect on them and they might as well be at their local hospital. Given the problem of diagnostics, is not the reality that this will not apply at all to the majority of stroke victims?