K&C loses junior doctors over consultant concerns

EMERGENCY PATIENTS TO BE TAKEN TO ASHFORD AND MARGATE

ior doctors at all times.

“Junior doctors provide a service to the NHS Trust that they work within, however, there is also a clear requirement that they are provided with education and training.”

HEE will be working with the trust and other agencies to ensure the changes, which are likely to be implemented within three months, do not put patients at risk.

They are likely to affect about 50 of the 900 patients who attend the K&C each day – 30 of them at the urgent care centre.

The main impact will be on inpatient medical services, including those used by heart attack and stroke patients and some elderly patients with serious illnesses like pneumonia.

Surgical, chemotherapy, renal, vascular and urology services, as well as all outpatient clinics, will remain unchanged.

The trust says patients from the Canterbury area who are taken by ambulance to Ashford or Margate will be transferred to the K&C as soon as possible.

Canterbury MP Julian Brazier says he is concerned to learn of the latest development, while maintaining his aim to secure a new hospital in the city.

“My immediate focus is that we get a sustainable outcome from the current sustainability and transformation plan review which leaves open the long-term goal of a full-size hospital in Canterbury, serving east Kent,” he said.

“This means prioritising the plans by our two main local universities for a medical school in east Kent to provide a draw for consultants and other key staff to work here.”