‘People just want to be able to see a doctor for a heart attack’

As the East Kent hospitals trust struggles to turn the tide on England’s worst A&E waiting times, Jodie Nesling sits down with Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield to see what she thinks needs to be done

Am I in one of the most perilous places in the UK? Apparently so, according to Canterbury’s new MP, Rosie Duffield, as I arrive for an interview in Woolage Green.

The village, together with Seasalter, is as far away as you can be in her constituency from the East Kent A&E departments, which were last week revealed to have the worst waiting times in the country.

With just 61% of patients seen within four hours, the East Kent hospitals trust is now under pressure to resolve the crisis, which has been partly attributed to cutbacks at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital sparking an increase in patients at the QEQM in Margate and William Harvey in Ashford.

Services for cardiac, stroke, mental health and alcoholrelated illnesses were cut gradually from the K&C over a 12-month period as there were too few consultants to supervise its junior doctors.

Ms Duffield and her team arrive at The Two Sawyers in good spirits and, despite acknowledging the benefits of a pub interview on a sunny Friday, she is keen to highlight the very real risk of merely being here.

“We are 36 minutes away on a traffic-free day,” she says. “We are in a village with fairly sparse public transport. What happens if you don’t have a car? You have to get yourself to hospital, you have to get yourself to A&E.

“I have people writing to me saying because the potholes were so bad on the journey to Ashford, ambulance staff were increasing the morphine because this woman was in so much pain – that’s the kind of thing I am hearing more of.”

A patient shunting along the road in agony should surely convince most there are serious problems for East Kent patients, but is it because of major cutbacks to emergency care at the K&C?

The trust says not, and is supported by North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale, who last week claimed people were clogging up departments with nonurgent illnesses. Ms Duffield is not convinced.

“Nobody is going to want to go to A&E unless they have to and they are obviously there because they are desperate,” she argues. “Most people are going there if they cannot get the treatment or services they need.”

Ms Duffield is settling into public life since winning her seat in June and, in a case of life imitating art, she left a job writing political satire to enter the increasingly postsatire world of Westminster – usurping Tory grandee Sir Julian Brazier in the process.

“I really didn’t expect to win,” she says, recalling the shock result that saw Canterbury turn red for the first time in its history.

The mum-of-two, who has lived in Canterbury for 19 years, is prepared to take the hospital fight to Westminster but what, I ask, can realistically be achieved to solve the crisis?

“I have spoken with shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth, and he knows how bad it is, but it’s difficult when other MPS have the same problems,” she says. “At least, even though it is terrible, I can go to him with the worst figures in the country and I can try to get a meeting with Jeremy Hunt so he can intervene.”

Mr Gale, I tell her, has also been outspoken in his condemnation of the 2014 CQC report that forced the trust into special measures. Is this justified?

“I’ll be honest, I haven’t read the report, but from everything I have heard from staff it needed to be in special measures,” she says.

“They are desperate. What we need is a fully functioning, fully funded and viable hospital – 14 departments have closed over the past decade.”

Ms Duffield continues to argue that low morale at the hospital and underfunded departments are not going to attract staff.

The money, she argues, is there to save the cash-strapped departments and austerity is not the way forward.

As the trust continues to resolve its financial woes, Ms Duffield has urged people to support a bid for a new acute medical and training centre.

“We need to start listening to people and restore our A&E,” she said. “One of the things I support is the bid for the new medical centre, which the University of Kent and local people support. That would attract new doctors.

“It’s not rocket science, people just want to be able to see a doctor for a heart attack. It’s terrifying.”

‘We need to start listening to people and restore our A&E’