We need a straight answer from trust

Affecting tens of thousands of people in east Kent, the closure of the urgent care centre at the K&C will be one of the biggest shifts in hospital operations since it was opened in the 1930s. If – as staff repeatedly insist they have been told – the trust closes the unit, then it is slamming the door on those who could be in desperate need.

We say “if” because for a week the Gazette has asked the East Kent Hospitals Trust if it is closing the centre.

And for a week it has delayed, blustered, obfuscated. Most importantly of all, it has failed to provide a straight answer to the simple question: is the urgent care centre shutting?

This newspaper has heard time and again from staff who have been in meetings both about theirs and the unit’s futures.

Acute staff have even been asked where they would like to move to. Others report colleagues already being redeployed.

The simple inquiry put to the trust repeatedly has been: what is the truth of all this?

Using tortuously bureaucratic verbiage, the trust answers the fundamental question of the UCC’S future by babbling about “business continuity”, “emerging issues” and “robust processes”.

All of this is absolutely meaningless to an ordinary member of the public who wants to know what level of service they can expect in the future.

Management’s failure to be straight is telling – but there is a wider issue.

The taxpayers who fund the NHS deserve better. The patients who use east Kent hospitals deserve better. And the staff who have devoted their professional lives to the care of others deserve better.

What part of the words “public service” does the east Kent hospitals trust not understand?