A serious report has been published this week by the Care Quality Commission which is highly critical of the hospitals in East Kent; including the Kent and Canterbury and William Harvey Hospitals. It is essential that we have a rigorous system of hospital inspections so that problems can be identified and addressed. Patients and their families have the right to expect that they will receive excellent treatment and be looked after well when they visit hospital. The East Kent Hospitals Trust is planning to appeal against certain aspects of the Care Quality Commission’s report but it is also essential that they respond in full to all of the points of concern that have been raised in the report. We should also remember that whilst there are criticisms of aspects of the hospitals trust's work, there are also many strong areas. In particular East Kent hospitals have one of lowest mortality rates for patients in the country, and deliver leading services for heart attack and stroke victims. Treatment times for cancer patients have also been reduced over the last few years.
I will be discussing the report with Stuart Bain, the Chief Executive of the East Kent hospitals trust, and asking him how he intends to respond to the criticisms that have been made of the management of the trust. One of the particular areas for improvement is in waiting times for treatment at Accident and Emergency. The hospital trust needs to address this directly, but we are also investing in more community based services which will prevent unnecessary trips to A&E. This autumn Folkestone will be the first town in Kent to benefit from the Prime Minister’s challenge fund for community commissioning of health services. This will mean that through the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone, local patients will be able to see a GP seven days a week between the hours of 8am and 8pm. There will also be extra resources for the mental health teams and a local paramedic service which will be able to visit people at home to deal with non-urgent treatments that do not require at visit to A&E. This service will also be extended into other areas of the district, including Romney Marsh.
There are two considerable benefits to the new service. Firstly, patients will receive better local care, avoiding unnecessary and costly trips to hospital in Ashford or Canterbury. In turn this also means that the resources at the hospitals are not placed under so much pressure. Too often, out of hours, people have to make a trip to hospital as there has not been an alternative local service that they could turn to. That is about to change and it is a very welcome reform. There are also other treatments that can be delivered locally and away from hospitals. For the last year cancer patients have been able to access a mobile chemotherapy unit. This unit works from the Kent and Canterbury hospital but is delivering treatment in the community.
This important report from the Care Quality Commission needs to be addressed by the East Kent Hospitals Trust. But we should also be working together to look at the best ways of delivering excellent care in the community. This should be based on partnership between the hospitals, the Clinical Commissioning group led by our local GPs, and also the local authorities through the public health boards.