People here care passionately about our super hospital

This week, the east Kent hospitals’ trust PR team kicked into overdrive and went all out to explain its thinking about the future of our healthcare. Except they say they have not got a plan, at least not one they are ready to share with us. They have an “emerging model” which involves creating a super hospital at either Ashford, Canterbury and Margate.

There’s just one snag. The trust claims it has no idea which one of these hospitals it will be.

Really? Yes, really – according to the chief executive Matthew Kershaw who insists despite all the effort and time being pumped into this gigantic shake up of health services, it could still be any of them.

Paradoxically, health bosses are able to say by their calculations they will be able to save £292 million across Kent and Medway.

This is a curiously precise figure – especially as Mr Kershaw admits he doesn’t know which hospital will go “super” and what the fate of the other two will be.

The east Kent trust insists that this week’s release of information is an exercise in openness and transparency.

If it is, then it is a very odd one indeed. It leaves innumerable questions unanswered. In addition to the super hospital conundrum, what is the future of renal, vascular, urology and baby services in east Kent? No one, apparently, knows. One thing we do know is that history teaches that the people of east Kent care passionately about their health services.

And trust bosses need to get on with their plan and actually have something to tell people next time they choose to make an announcement in a hail of publicity.