Plans for public consultation on changes to hospital services, including accident and emergency care, in east Kent have been pushed back to an unspecified date due to the need for more detailed work to take place.
The Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership Programme Board has been discussing two potential options for accident and emergency care and six potential options for planned inpatient orthopaedic care in east Kent.
The plan was for the proposals to go out to public consultation at some point this year but health commissioners say due to the extensive preparation work that is needed, it is now not possible to give a date for when consultation will start.
Preparations
Caroline Selkirk, managing director East Kent, said: “The Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership Programme Board has agreed that plans for health and care services in east Kent will go out to public consultation as soon as they are fully ready.
“As part of the preparations for that, we are pulling together the relevant data on patient pathways, travel times, and workforce in current state, to develop a robust pre-consultation business case. At the same time, we are continuing our pre-consultation engagement with stakeholders and local communities in east Kent.
“This is helping us develop the detail behind potential options and, importantly, look at how we can best develop local out of hospital care. It will culminate in a whole system simulation event where we will stress test proposals before we move to formal consultation. All of this will build on work already undertaken and help us move forward.
“Once we have a shortlist of established proposals to go to public consultation, there will be a rigorous assurance process before the consultation launches. We have established a Joint Committee of CCGs in east Kent who will take the final decision about which options should go out to public consultation.
“It is a process that requires a great deal of hard work and, while it is being progressed as quickly as possible, it is not possible currently to give a date for when consultation will start.”
Services now
Currently the three main hospitals – at Ashford, Canterbury and Margate – each provide different services, with A&E departments at Margate and Ashford and an Urgent Care Centre at Canterbury. A range of specialist services are located at different hospitals. For example, the trauma unit is located at William Harvey Hospital, and inpatient kidney services are at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
Last November the east Kent CCGs agreed two options for A&E and other health services needed further investigation but were expecting proposals to be ready for consultation this year.
County councillor Karen Constantine, who sits on the health overview scrutiny panel at the authority, said: “I have been raising concerns over the past 18 months about the speed and pace of changes. If changes need to be made then the CCGs must be able to clearly demonstrate the need and the value to Thanet residents”
Cllr Constantine said she is now calling on South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay to enter into discussions about the funding difficulties and staff issues that she says are holding the NHS back in Thanet.
The options
Option 1, an estimated £160million NHS investment:
- a much bigger, modern, A&E at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, which would also provide services for people that need highly specialist care (such as trauma, vascular and specialist heart services) in east Kent
- an expanded, modern A&E at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM), Margate, with inpatient care for people who are acutely unwell, emergency and day surgery, maternity and geriatric care
- investment in beds and services at Kent and Canterbury Hospital which would have a 24/7 GP-led Urgent Treatment Centre, and services including diagnostics (such as X-ray and CT scans), day surgery, outpatient services and rehabilitation.
Option 2, an estimated £250million NHS investment:
- the fitting out of a new build and refurbishment of some of the current buildings connected to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, which would provide a single 24/7 A&E and all specialist services (such as trauma, vascular and specialist heart services) for the whole of east Kent
- QEQM Hospital and William Harvey Hospital would have 24/7 GP-led Urgent Treatment Centres, as well as diagnostics (such as X-ray and CT scans), day surgery, outpatient services and rehabilitation.
Developer Quinn Estates has offered to donate to the NHS land and the shell of a new hospital, as part of a development of 2,000 new homes, which includes an access road from the A2. It would be subject to planning permission.
Commissioners say this would be less than half the cost of building a new single site hospital on green belt land, which would cost some £700million and take 10 years to construct.
Six potential options for planned inpatient orthopaedic care.
- only the Kent and Canterbury Hospital
- only QEQM Hospital
- only William Harvey Hospital
- both the Kent and Canterbury Hospital and William Harvey Hospital
- both the Kent and Canterbury Hospital and QEQM Hospital
- both William Harvey Hospital and QEQM Hospital
NHS commissioners and the NHS centrally (NHS England) will need to approve the shortlist before it goes out to public consultation, including a business case for funding the changes, because all the options require significant capital funding.
Article originally appeared on The Isle of Thanet News
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