Retired consultant says our hospital can be great again

A retired consultant says health bosses should stop downgrading the city’s hospital and make Canterbury a centre of medical excellence.

Senior staff shortages have already seen the east Kent health trust forced to transfer heart and stroke services out of the Kent and Canterbury to Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital.

Now retired consultant physician Michael Goggin, 83, says leaders should concentrate on making the city a health hub.

He said: “Inevitably east Kent will need to served by one centre of medical excellence, situated in the middle and best-serving the needs of our population.

“Now is the time for all future MPS to work together to bring this about – common sense and logic dictates that this should be in Canterbury.

“It is no good to once again come up with a sticking plaster solution. We need to apply the maximum pressure on the powers that be so that this one hospital solution can be brought about.”

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 is likely to see all specialities concentrated at the William Harvey.

Health campaigners are challenging the recent loss of services, including the emergency heart and stroke treatment.

They fear the downgrading has already started ahead of a proposed full public consultation on the STP. Dr Goggin, of Hackington Road, Tyler Hill, said: “It is unbelievable that a city such as ours which has the mother church of the Anglican community and has a huge school and university population should have been allowed to reach this parlous state.

“We offer training to nurses, radiographers and occupational therapists locally and we are the most deprived area of the country when it comes to the local provision of medical school places.

“Such a provision of this latter suggestion would restore our prestige and ease our recruitment problems.

“We used to be great and we used to have no difficulty recruiting – we can turn the clock back and we must do so now.”

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Retired consultant physician Michael Goggin says health bosses should stop downgrading the city’s hospital