A long-serving consultant has broken ranks to condemn plans to downgrade the Kent and Canterbury Hospital (K&C), warning it will be the “final nail in the coffin” for the site.
Dr Howard Dent says the extent of the proposals to axe certain services was revealed at a recent meeting with East Kent Hospital Trust bosses.
Consultant anaesthetist Dr Howard Dent has worked for the East Kent Hospitals Trust for more than 30 years
He claims that during the consultants’ forum, acting chief medical officer Helen Mackie indicated the full strategic direction of the trust, which he worries could leave the K&C with just elective surgery, like orthopaedics, and a ‘frailty’ centre for older patients.
In a rare intervention by a serving staff member, Dr Dent told KentOnline: “I left the meeting alarmed by what I’d heard because it was made quite clear that the future of the K&C will be very limited.
“The whole thrust of the discussion was about moving all acute services to the William Harvey, which will leave the K&C a shadow of what it used to be.”
The city hospital opened in Ethelbert Road in 1937 and had a fully functioning A&E until 2005 – leaving Ashford’s William Harvey and Margate’s QEQM as the only hospitals in east Kent with emergency departments for the past two decades.
Trust bosses have told KentOnline that no decisions have yet been taken on the K&C’s future.
But Dr Dent, who has worked for the trust since 1994, has chosen to speak out against any “further cutbacks” at the hospital because he fears acute services will be transferred to sites “with a history of failure and incompetence”.
The 67-year-old points to the problems in maternity services and the critical incidents which have been declared at A&E at the QEQM and William Harvey.
The consultant anaesthetist fears more K&C services, including acute stroke thrombectomy and vascular surgery, will be the next to go.
“Acute stroke thrombectomy started here in the last six months and is achieving good results,” he says.
“The proximity of the acute stroke reception area, radiology and the very expensive new thrombectomy suite being particularly advantageous.
”Vascular surgery at the K&C recently took on Medway’s vascular work but is struggling to cope because it is under-resourced.”
Acting trust chief executive Des Holden also spoke at the consultants’ forum.
According to Dr Dent, Mr Holden “as good as admitted” that the K&C’s resources have been used to “help bail out other loss-making services in the trust”.
Dr Dent said: “Kent and Canterbury Hospital staff have always met the many challenges thrown at them – not least during Covid when the hospital treated most of the cancer patients from all specialities in east Kent while also caring for critically ill Covid patients from neurology, haematological oncology and renal services.
”But in east Kent, success is not rewarded. Specialist services are to be transferred to sites that have a history of failure and incompetence.”
Dr Dent also worries that patients will not get the quality of experience or outcomes if more services are moved.
The Kent and Canterbury Hospital
“Canterbury was once a thriving hospital but further cutbacks will be the final nail in the coffin,” he said.
“It also makes it very hard to recruit new staff if they know the hospital is being downgraded in the future.”
Dr Dent admits his outspoken intervention is unlikely to make him popular with trust bosses, but added: “Frankly, we need to act quickly if we are going to stop this relentless transfer of services, which is absurd.”
He wants the trust to step back and look at what works well about the current system.
“They should invest in that rather than spending money just needlessly moving services across the patch where they may not be provided quite so well,” he said.
Consultant anethethist Dr Howard Dent has spoken out about his concerns
In a statement to KentOnline, Ms Mackie said the trust recognises that “healthcare is changing” with a growing and ageing population – and more people living with multiple long-term conditions and frailty.
“In east Kent, we want to transform both urgent and emergency care and how the health system looks after elderly and vulnerable patients over the next five years,”
“We want to develop centres of excellence in our hospitals, improve cancer and diagnostic services, invest in maternity and children’s services, and continue to modernise the technology, infrastructure and workforce that support high-quality care.
“Patients will continue to access care locally wherever possible whilst benefiting from specialist expertise when required.
“We want to work with our clinicians, our patients, our NHS and social care partners, the communities we serve and those who represent them in how we do this.”
Ms Mackie said the trust is “committed to being open about the challenges we face” and will publish its “strategic intentions” early next year.
“We look forward to working with patients, staff, our partners and local population to provide excellent health services for the people of east Kent,” she said.
KentOnline reported earlier this year that the K&C’s high-performing stroke unit is set to move to the William Harvey, where a new centre is being built, which sparked anger and a campaign.
The new Hyper Acute Stroke Unit currently under construction at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital
That decision came despite the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme, which provides data to the NHS, revealing that East Kent Hospitals is now the only trust in England rated ‘A’ for stroke care.
Concerns have also been raised about the time it will take for patients to get to hospital – from Thanet, for example – when time is so critical.
Ms Mackie told KentOnline the decision was taken after significant public consultation across Kent and Medway and “reflects best practice in stroke treatment”.
She added: “Working with our clinicians, we will consider whether the William Harvey Hospital could become a circulatory centre of excellence supported by interventional radiology and mechanical thrombectomy.
“We will also consider whether Kent and Canterbury Hospital could build upon the success of its orthopaedic centre to become east Kent’s principal centre for planned surgery.
“Patients and local communities will be fully involved in these decisions.”
A campaign against the downgrading of the K&C has been waging for more than 20 years, backed by Concern for Health in East Kent (Chek).
Its full A&E department was closed 21 years ago, becoming an “emergency care centre”. It was further reduced to an urgent treatment centre in 2016.
A petition, called ‘Save Kent and Canterbury Hospital’, has so far gained almost 9,000 signatures. It was launched after the trust revealed it wants to cut the night-time opening hours of the centre, claiming a lack of use.
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield said at the time the proposal was “deeply concerning for the community”.
Previous plans for a new super hospital in Canterbury, under a restructure of health services across east Kent, failed to materialise when a funding application was snubbed by the government in 2023.