THE stroke unit at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital is to be upgraded as part of a multi-million pound shake-up of services for the potentially fatal condition.

The reorganisation covering Lancashire and South Cumbria will take three years.

The Royal Blackburn will become one of two new Specialist Acute Stroke Centres along with Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

They will see significant investment in new equipment, extra beds and more expert staff.

The NHS will invest £5.7million in capital expenditure on the new system and an extra £13.8 million a year in running it.

The Royal Preston Hospital will remain the centre for the most serious stroke treatment including neurosurgery and Thrombectomy removal of blood clots from the brain.

Blackburn, which after the reorganisation will have 11 new 'hyper-acute stroke beds' to go with 15 acute stroke beds and 19 rehabilitation beds, was chosen over its counterpart in Lancaster for the new ungraded unit.

The upgrade of the Royal Blackburn's stroke unit, due to be complete by spring 2024, has been welcomed by the town's MP Kate Hollern and Blackburn with Darwen Council's public health director Professor Dominic Harrison.

The decision to make the changes followed a review of the service provided in Lancashire and South Cumbria for the more than 6,000 patients a year suffering clots to the brain.

New community rehabilitation staff in Blackburn with Darwen are also being recruited.

Mrs Hollern said: "I am pleased to note that there is to be investment in stroke treatment at Royal Blackburn Hospital. This is long overdue.

"Failure to quickly tackle incidences of stroke is known to lead to worsening complications in the future, including more strokes, the onset of dementia and ultimately potential death."

Prof Harrison said: "I really welcome the proposed further investment by the NHS in the Royal Blackburn Hospital to develop the new Specialist Acute Stroke Centre.

"This enhancement will improve outcomes for those who have had a stroke and help minimise avoidable long-term harm.

"Having this enhanced capacity to respond quickly to stroke patients in Blackburn should improve services for the whole of East Lancashire.”

Russ McLean, chair of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices group, said: "The change will obviously be good for people in East Lancashire.

"I welcome any improvement of stroke services at the Royal Blackburn hospital but I am a worried about the impact of the centralisation of services on travelling times for seriously ill patients and their families."

Catherine Curley, clinical director for stroke in Lancashire and South Cumbria said: “We have been working together to look at how stroke care can be improved locally and as a result are planning to invest in improved, 24/7 stroke care for everyone.

“Working together to provide care in a different way will reduce the number of deaths and level of disability following stroke."

The Royal Lancaster and the Furness General Hospital in Barrow will remain open for more routine stroke treatment.