Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Medical school plan gets backing from hospital campaign
Universities look at developing centre of excellence for county
The city’s leading universities are working together on plans for a new medical school in Kent.
Bosses at the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church have received backing from health campaigners after confirming they have united to develop the proposal.
But leaders say the idea is in its “early stages” and it is not yet known where the planned school will be built.
Campaign group Concern for Health in East Kent (Chek) is calling for the site to be situated in the east of the county.
Chek secretary Peggy Pryer said: “We are absolutely in support of the universities.
“When we had the post-gradu- ate centre at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in the 1970s, a lot of doctors would come here, and the same would happen again if we had a medical school here.
“There is a shortage of medical schools in the country and there is no better place to have one than in east Kent.”
Chek is campaigning against the drastic scaling-back of emergency care provision in Canterbury, which many fear is the start of the downgrading of the hospital.
In March, Health Education England instructed the removal of junior doctors at the K&C because they are not being adequately supervised.
Bosses claim the measures are “temporary”, but the transfer of urgent care services has sparked fears they could be lost permanently as part of health chiefs’ Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for east Kent’s hospitals. The controversial scheme will likely see all specialities concentrated at the William Harvey in Ashford.
But Chek is challenging the recent loss of services from Canterbury, including emergency heart and stroke treatment.
It fears the downgrading has already started ahead of a proposed full public consultation on the STP, and has started fundraising to get legal advice.
It is also calling for a new acute hospital and the medical school to be created in Canterbury.
Christ Church spokesman Holly Finch said: “We are developing a proposal for a medical school in the Kent and Medway area. These proposals are in the early stages and we are in discussion with key stakeholders to develop the proposals further.”
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‘There is a shortage of medical schools… and there is no better place to have one’