News Archive
19 Sep 2021
Latest Information on Plans for New Hospital.
No decision has yet been taken on going out to public consultation on the two options for the location of the new specialist hospital - Canterbury or Ashford.
The East Kent Hospital Trust has told the Option Two Group that the plans were submitted to NHS England in November 2020 and that the latter had accepted that there is a compelling need to make the change because of the challenge of services being split across hospital sites in East Kent. Clearly the current situation, with specialist services spread across three sites is untenable and results in poor outcomes for residents of East Kent.
However, there are two things holding up the plans:
First, NHS England wants more detail on the range of services to be provided in each of the three hospitals, regardless of whether it is the specialist hospital. So do we! We have written to East Kent Hospital Trust requesting that detail.
Second, the Government have not said where the £400 million it will cost to build a new state-of-the-art hospital will come from. East Kent does not appear on any list, so far, of planned new or re-build hospitals in England.
All of us in East Kent need to make sure our MPs are telling the Government that it will be failing us if it does not fund a new specialist hospital here.
NO CHANGE IS NOT AN OPTION.
20 Aug 2021
Plans to expand William Harvey Hospital A&E in Ashford to meet demand from growing patient numbers.
Plans to upgrade a major hospital's A&E department have been revealed as the site no longer has sufficient capacity to cope with growing patient numbers.
The emergency unit at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford is currently used by about 280 people each day _ and pressure on the facility has increased because of the pandemic and the need for greater segregation.
Read the full story
here at Kent Online
22 Feb 2021
The Department of Health's White Paper
Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health, this week announced a major overhaul of the administration of healthcare in England.
Now, many people will probably say: Why do this at a time when the NHS is struggling with a pandemic?
Actually though, I think the overhaul should not be put off and one of the major proposals in the Department of Health’s White Paper is very relevant to the problems we have seen over the handling of Covid-19 during the past year.
This is to set up an Integrated Care System in every part of England. The idea is to ensure that hospitals, GPs, public health, and social care providers talk to each other and make plans for healthcare together. In fact, in our part of the world these bodies have already begun this process. However, it is very important that this process is given a boost and strengthened by legislation. One of the failures of the handling of the Covid-19 crisis was the failure to protect care homes from infection, and there is evidence that patients were being moved out of hospital into homes without adequate testing. I hope that the new stronger arrangements for vital cooperation between hospitals and the care system will go a long way to stop that happening.
There are other proposals in the White Paper that I like:
One is that the obligation for NHS hospitals to compete, rather than cooperate, with each other is to be scrapped. Another is that there will be no compulsion to make sure private providers can compete for NHS contracts. I would hope that this will lessen the amount of bureaucracy in the management of the Health Service.
Finally, there is a small sentence which I particularly like. It talks about the involvement of the public ‘not just for commentary but for co-production.’ Let’s see whether that will happen. What I would really like is for the poorer communities in Canterbury, through their community associations, to take part in planning to reduce the unequally high levels of ill-health they suffer from.
Martin Vye, Chairman
The full White Paper is available here
18 Feb 2021
Proposed New Hospital in Canterbury
Have you seen the latest report published in the Kentish Gazette dated 18th February 2021?
Keep up-to-date with all developments so you are ready to respond to the Public Consultation which will hopefully take place this year.
1 Oct 2020
Soon Be Time For you Have Your Say on Healthcare Services in East Kent
After six months of lockdown, and the huge pressures on the NHS, it is time to take stock—and look to the future.
There is no doubt about it: the acute hospital service in East Kent is not able to cope with the health needs of the people it serves
- At the end of June we learnt of particularly high death rates from COVID.
- The Hospital Trust is being investigated after failures in the maternity services.
- There is evidence of misdiagnosis of other conditions.
The fact is, given the way the hospital service is configured, the Trust cannot recruit sufficient numbers of the highly qualified clinical and nursing staff we need to make these vital decisions.
East Kent needs one major hospital, with all acute specialities on one site, that is capable of attracting the best medical, nursing, and allied professional staff.
The local NHS authorities, we understand, are persevering with their bid to create such a hospital. The two options for the location of this hospital being looked at are still either Ashford or Canterbury. We also hear that the favoured option is Canterbury, the logical choice, at the natural centre of East Kent.
It is difficult to see how the Government can NOT deliver on its promises of substantial extra funding for the Health Service. If that is so, and given the red flashing lights that East Kent must be setting off in NHS headquarters, we are more hopeful now that the options will be presented to the people of East Kent over the next year.
At the same time the developer who will deliver free of charge the building for the hospital, if Canterbury is chosen, will be looking in later 2021 to make the application to Canterbury City Council for permission to build a new estate of houses which is his condition for providing the building.
It is vital that the voice of local people is heard loud and strong when the options for the new hospital are put before us.
In the meantime it is equally important that the authorities know what it is like for people who have to use our local health services. Do let us know your thoughts about, and experience of, the local NHS. We will make sure they are directed to the right people.
24 Mar 2020
Coronavirus 
In the light of the current Coronavirus pandemic, our Group is unable to get out to talk to organisations or social groups about our work towards a new hospital for East Kent in Canterbury.
We have, therefore, put our presentation on the website for you to view and pass on to friends and family.
Click here to view our presentation
21 Feb 2020
New Hospital Must be Built in City
"We make no bones about it: we believe that East Kent needs a single main hospital providing all the acute services; and that it should be located in Canterbury." A letter from Martin Vye, Chair of Option 2 4U, appears in the Kentish Gazette this week. It confirms our group’s aim to provide accurate information to the public in preparation for the upcoming consultation.
Read full text
NEW HOSPITAL MUST BE BUILT IN CITY x
It is good to see that two local MP’s Rosie Duffield and Helen Whately, are highlighting the need for a new hospital in Canterbury. Certainly recent events have made it clear that there has to be radical change in how hospital services are organised in east Kent.
It is now three years since the local NHS/Social Care Partnership published its proposals for a new all-purpose acute hospital in east Kent. For the last year, however, they seem to have disappeared into a black hole. That is why a number of us have decided to set up a group dedicated to providing accurate information to the public.
We make no bones about it: we believe that East Kent needs a single main hospital providing all the acute services; and that it should be located in Canterbury.
We don’t want the other two hospitals though, in Ashford and Margate, to be reduced to shadows of their former selves. 87% of all visits to hospital are for non-acute conditions, and of course it is right for local people in those areas to be able to make those visits, to their local hospital.
But if we have a really serious condition we want the best possible treatment. Specialist consultants are in short supply. Trying to recruit clinicians of this calibre for three hospitals in east Kent is clearly not working.
And why Canterbury? Because it is at the centre of east Kent. Does it make sense for the main hospital to be located on the outside of the circle rather than the centre? Or for emergency ambulances to travel 35 miles rather than 18?
There will be a consultation on hospital plans later this year, we are told. The results of this consultation will be vital to the final decision. Our group wants to make sure local people have as much of the relevant facts as are available when they are asked to give their views.
So do visit our website option2group.org.uk – and contact us on optiontwo4u@gmail.com.
Martin Vye,
Chair, optiontwo4u
21 Feb 2020
Frustration Over Hospital Decision
Read what Cllr Louise Jones-Roberts wrote in the Kentish Gazette last week. She states "To a layperson, therefore, it feels the only way to maximise the level of acute care in east Kent is with Option 2."
Kentish Gazette Article
21 Feb 2020
Support From Faversham
"The best option, in our view, must be to centralise most hospital services at a new, up-to-date facility in Canterbury …." Pamela & Richard Margrie write in support of the centralisation of hospital services at a new hospital in Canterbury.
Kentish Gazette Article
Read full text
SUPPORT FROM FAVERSHAM x
Following on from the tragic circumstances at the QEQM maternity unit, the best option, in our view must be to centralise most hospital services at a new, up-to-date facility in Canterbury including a major A&E department and maternity unit.
Pamela & Richard Margrie
Tanners Street, Faversham
14 Feb 2020
Local MP in Cabinet Reshuffle
Faversham MP, Helen Whately, has been appointed as a Junior Minister in the Department of Health (Minister of State for Social Care)
