I had a phone call this morning with Peggy Pryer updating me on the meeting held yesterday. Peggy has said — Considering CHEK had organised the meeting in less than two weeks, the committee was reasonably pleased with the attendance ( over 300). We had relied on the local press and media for publicity and the meeting had been mentioned by both, not as much as we had hoped but due to very limited funds we had to depend on free publicity. What did help no doubt was the fact that we had used social media to get publicity.

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/public-meeting-called-in-bid-121729/

As part of the proposals, the K&C could lose all its specialist services to either Ashford or Thanet, with an additional threat to its acute services as the Trust looks to cut 300 beds across Kent and Medway.

The future of its urgent care centre remains in doubt following speculation the east Kent hospitals trust is set to close it temporarily amid a staffing crisis.

It would mean heart attack and stroke patients being diverted to the QEQM Hospital in Margate or Ashford’s William Harvey.
Trust chief executive Matthew Kershaw last week denied staff had been told the centre was shutting this spring, contrary to what employees have told KentOnline.

But the fears surrounding healthcare in the city have sparked a meeting today, which is being organised by the recently reformed Concern for Health in East Kent (CHEK).

The group has previously fought for the future of the K&C and stopped it being downgraded at the turn of the century, but could not save its A&E department.

It has now been revived following the release of the Trust’s new sustainability and transformation plan (STP), which will likely see specialist services relocated to just one of the Trust’s three main hospitals – speculated to be the William Harvey.

People worried about the future of the NHS in Kent gathered in Canterbury to question health bosses about proposals they fear could lead to the loss of hundreds of beds. Campaigners organised the public meeting after claiming they were being kept in the dark. Nashreen Issa was there.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2017-03-11/public-meeting-over-fears-over-hospital-closures/

ray heart.png

He is smiling again here but the story could have been so different if he had to travel further.

We have had to use this acute ward for Ray when he had his heart attack.
We called 911 on the orders of the Receptionist at Medical Centre as Ray was having bad pains in the chest after a dog walk.

First the Paramedic appears and starts treatment and sets up the lounge like a hospital ward with all the machines measuring everything.
Clot busting drugs are given, If he was having a stroke they couldn’t give the drug as a scan would need to be done first.

He was then driven to the hospital in the Ambulance but as the Ambulance comes from Dover the crew have to use a SAT/Nav that doesn’t show the 6ft wide roads so we go up a Church Lane which is 6ft wide it is always blocked by traffic trying to pass each other.

I never realised before what a bumpy ride it was in an Ambulance. We did get to the hospital and Ray was put into a room where he had more tests. From there he went to the Acute holding room (they have closed that now) where he stayed until they could find a bed in Taylor Ward. This ward has 10 beds for heart patients this has been reduced to 5 beds but often finds itself with 8 and so short of nurses.

He did go to Ashford for his Stents to be fitted but at least that wasnt in emergency mode. I was in chemo at the time so I had to travel so as to visit.

Now I explain all this because if they close the Acute Ward that will mean a longer ride to Ashford.. From here in Seasalter the only way is to go to the Faversham turn off then travel on a roads that are single lane and so very dangerous to travel at speed.– 37 min 18.9 miles. If you had a straight run.

So why would you want to do that when K&C Hospital is in the middle of East Kent it would be better to set the Acute Ward in K&C. The road and rail network is good Don’t turn it into a cottage hospital.

In an ideal world the only real way to sort the problem out is to have a state of the art hospital built-in Canterbury with a Medical School built next door to it so as to help the shortage of all the Health Care professionals — but that is an ideal world.

Stop the Closure of Urgent Care Centre at K&C Hospital
150,000 plus residents of Canterbury will have to travel a considerable distance to find urgent help.
The hospital has slowly been ‘stripped back’ and this appears to be another step towards the Trust achieving the closure that was threatened in the 1990s.
As pointed out by a previous campaigner in Thanet, in relation to losing local urgent care services – “our hospitals in surrounding areas are already under enough strain” and that is without having to accommodate for the whole of our area as well.