Health chiefs probe ‘credibility’ of ‘super’ hospital plans for city

Final government decision on vital funding expected by end of year

The “credibility” of longawaited plans to transform hospital services in east Kent is being scrutinised by health bosses.

Kent NHS chiefs have submitted a bid for £460 million which would be used to either build a ‘super’ hospital in Canterbury or enhance emergency services at Ashford and Margate.

Kent County Council (KCC) and Medway Council’s health scrutiny committee reviewed the plans on Tuesday.

The Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said it was investigating the “credibility” of the options ahead of a public consultation.

County councillors have said it remains “difficult” to decide which one to go with.

Rachel Jones, the CCG’S executive director of strategy and population health, said: “We need to market test the two options and really understand that both are viable and deliverable, before we

go to a public consultation.

“I think that is to the benefit of the whole population of east Kent.”

The funding bid to transform emergency hospital care in the east of the county was initially made to the Department for Health and Social Care last October.

The cash would come from a £3.7 billion pot which the government has set aside to deliver 40 “new” hospitals across England by 2030.

A decision on Kent’s submission was expected in the spring of 2022. However, the government has delayed making a final verdict due to the pandemic.

The ‘super’ hospital proposal would see a more modern facility built on farmland next to the ageing Kent and Canterbury Hospital, in Ethelbert Road.

Developers Quinn Estates would build the shell of the hospital for free as part of a wider housing development of 2,000 homes on surrounding land, with the NHS having to find the money to equip it.

The five-storey building would host a major emergency unit for east Kent, with specialist services such as heart and stroke care centralised in Canterbury.

A&E departments at Ashford’s William Harvey and the QEQM in Margate would be downgraded to urgent treatment centres, but locals would still use the hospitals for the majority of their care.

However, concerns were raised by Cllr Paul Bartlett (Con), who is KCC’S health scrutiny chair, about the “viability” of this option.

“I am not sure it is credible to rely on private funding to deliver a larger hospital,” he said.

The alternative option would see all major services centralised at the William Harvey, with Margate’s A&E unit expanded and the K&C downgraded to a hospital specialising in diagnostics and routine planned surgery.

A final decision for funding is expected from the government by the end of 2022.

CGI of the ‘super’ hospital proposed for Canterbury