Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Super-hospital ‘waste of money’
Controversial plans for a super-hospital in Canterbury have been slammed as a “big waste of public money”. The mammoth £500m scheme - backed by the NHS - was tabled three years ago as private developer Quinn Estates offered to fund a new-build on land neighbouring the current Kent and Canterbury Hospital site.
Quinn’s scheme - which would see a major emergency centre for all of east Kent transferred to Canterbury alongside a 24/7 A&E department - is one of two options being considered by the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The second option would see existing hospital services enhanced at Margate’s QEQM and Ashford’s William Harvey, including a new major trauma unit at the latter site. However, Kent and Medway’s joint health scrutiny committee expressed “grave concerns” about the Canterbury proposal amid a heated debate about plans to “transform” healthcare in east Kent during a virtual public meeting on Monday. Ashford county councillor Paul Bartlett (Con), who chairs the committee, said: “It is effectively putting the future of healthcare services in east Kent in the hands of a private developer. It is wholly dependent on Quinn making funds available or building the hospital in Canterbury; if that does not happen the whole scheme is lost.” The hospital will form part of an upcoming planning application and, if granted, Quinn Estates would, in return, receive permission to build 2,000 homes on surrounding land. Mark Quinn, managing director of Quinn Estates, has defended his proposal to build the £150 million hospital shell. After the meeting, he said: “As a developer we have never let Ashford down as a historic partner. There has been enough public scrutiny in what we have suggested to think we are doing something seriously good for the people of east Kent.”
Mr Quinn says he has received offers from two FTSE companies to construct the city housing, making the scheme “viable”. An updated NHS paper is due to be presented to the committee outlining the issues around the proposal ahead of a public consultation in 2021.