Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
K&C surviving on agency doctors, says trust
As pressure mounts on the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, a public meeting has failed to provide any reassurances about its future - but campaigners say they won’t give up the fight
Bosses at Kent and Canterbury hospital have for the first time admitted that staff shortages could force them to temporarily shut services on the site.
Trust chiefs said this week that the hospital is “relying heavily” on agency doctors, with the ongoing search for permanent staff proving “difficult”.
The troubles were highlighted at a packed public meeting in Canterbury on Saturday, which was attended by trust directors.
They say that if a point is reached where there are not enough doctors to provide safe care, temporary changes would force patients to use hospitals in Margate and Ashford.
The admission comes three weeks after the Gazette reported that staff had been told Canterbury’s urgent care centre would be closing imminently.
East Kent hospitals trust chief executive Matthew Kershaw denied the speculation, but a spokesman this week hinted that difficulties facing the hospital continue to mount.
Steve James said: “We have a duty to ensure that hospital services are safe, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“They are safe now, but finding enough permanent doctors to work at Kent & Canterbury Hospital is difficult and we are relying heavily on locum doctors.
“If we reached a point where there were not enough doctors to look after patients safely, we would need to make temporary changes to some of the services we provide, with some patients needing to be seen at Ashford and Margate hospitals instead.
“Keeping patients safe is our priority, so we will only do this if it is the safest thing to do for our patients.”
But those attending the meeting at the Westgate Hall – which was organised by campaign group Concern for Health in East Kent (Chek) – left with little optimism for the future of the Kent and Canterbury.
The groups’s main objective is to secure funding for a new hospital in the city, but it was once again rejected by trust bosses on financial grounds.
Even an impassioned plea by 91-year-old Marjorie Lyle, from Rough Common, fell on deaf ears.
She said: “I will be dead before a new hospital is built but we have a crumbling hospital where staff are working their socks off to keep it going.
“When is the money coming for that? I am in a hurry so I would want to see a new hospital in a year.”
Liz Shutler, who is director of strategic development and capital planning at the east Kent hospitals’ trust, told the meet-