Growing city badly needs its hospital

It is extremely concerning that the £35 million deficit faced by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust could mean further downgrading at Kent and Canterbury Hospital (Hospital Fears/fears Of K&C Facing Big Downgrade, Kentish Gazette, November 24).

It is equally concerning the Chancellor did not address the financial crisis faced by the NHS in his Autumn Statement last week.

While the trust faces an unenviable task in trying to balance the books, it is essential that Canterbury is not overlooked as a major centre for specialist services in east Kent.

The Canterbury district already has a population of 157,000. Over the next 15 years, 15,000 houses are due to be built, which could see a further 30,000 people across the district.

In 2015, Canterbury had the highest student/permanent resident ratio in the UK with 31,000 students.

It has the largest population of all districts in east Kent and the council estimates that by 2031, one in four residents will be over 65.

These are figures that surely support a long-term future for hospital services in Canterbury.

It is 20 years since Kent and Canterbury lost its accident and emergency department.

A city and district facing such rapid growth must have a local hospital to meet the needs of its growing population – not a further downgrading of services. James Flanagan, Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman for Canterbury and Whitstable, Fitzroy Road, Whitstable

You are right to report concerns that Kent and Canterbury hospital “may be downgraded”.

These come after the NHS has published its so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Kent.

This is meant to outline service improvements and financial stability for the future of our health services.

Having read this plan, it is obviously no more than a high-level programme plan often used in senior management.

It uses very little detail and uses what for the public is massively confusing and obfuscating management speak.

I listened with interest to senior health managers present this plan to last Friday’s Kent County Council health oversight and scrutiny committee meeting.

Despite being pressed, these managers were unable to elaborate on any more detailed proposals beyond their unsubstantiated claim that “around 300 acute beds” could be dispensed with in east Kent.

More worrying still is they admitted they had not yet “made the case for change” and that their next task was indeed to formulate a business case for it.

I wonder what kind of democratic and public consultation we are going to be presented with and trust we will not be given a smoke and mirrors document effectively hiding in plain sight the increasing privatisation of our NHS.

We all know the NHS is facing a cash crisis through increased demand and underfunding. We also know billions of pounds are wasted on increasing transaction costs in the NHS due to unnecessary privatisation of services.

The NHS funding crisis is a political John Grand, of South Court Drive, Wingham, took this picture of poinsettias at Summerfield Nurseries in Wingham. He said: “Literally a sea of red for readers.” choice not an inevitable economic outcome.

On Saturday, in only a few hours, more than 500 Canterbury and Whitstable people signed our petition calling on the government to care for our NHS by fully funding it now.

We will continue campaigning to save our NHS. Michael Bland Campaign co-ordinator, Canterbury and Whitstable Constituency Labour Party, Belmont Road, Whitstable

It is very easy for someone sitting in an office to make decisions about our hospitals.

From previous decisions, it is very obvious they haven’t looked at all the impacts these changes will have on the patients and visitors.

None of the three hospitals – QEQM, the William Harvey or K&C – have sufficient parking.

The waiting room at Ashford is appalling, far too small, and at QEQM once you have been triaged you can be sat in a corridor for hours.

Then you have to get there. Public transport to K&C is good, but if you have to travel by public transport to QEQM or Ashford, it takes hours.

Some of the people doing these journeys are sick and not just visiting patients.

People living in Ashford or Margate don’t have too much of a problem, but everyone needs to be considered.

To access specialist services it is necessary to travel, but surely the system that we have had previously has worked well.

If anything K&C should go back to having an accident and emergency department.

This would help to reduce traffic on the roads and reduce journey times for patients and visitors.

We know any decision that is made is not about the patients but about cutting costs.

I am sure most people would be happy to pay an extra 1p on their income tax to ensure they get good local care.

When it comes to bed blocking, this could be overcome by going back to having convalescence homes where people can go to finish their recovery so they no longer need to be hospitalised.

This has got to cost less than having them in hospital waiting for a care package.

One of the biggest issues in hospitals is the lack of staff which leads to those who are there being thoroughly demoralised.

How can they give patients quality care when they don’t have the time?

We hear about patients who cannot feed themselves having food put in front of them and then cleared away and patients who are dehydrated because they are not