More hip and knee replacements will take place at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in a bid to cut cancellations.

Last winter all pre-planned surgeries at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the QEQM in Margate were postponed for four months due to demands on their A&E departments.

In a bid to avoid a repeat, the trust plans to open four new theatres at the K&C dedicated for inpatient operations as part of a national Getting It Right The First Time pilot.

Emergency surgery will continue at the William Harvey and QEQM.

In preparation for this change, planned hip and knee replacements undertaken in Ashford will move to Canterbury.

However, spine surgery, day case surgery, trauma planned shoulder, foot and ankle operations will remain at the William Harvey hospital.

Two temporary theatres will be put in place to accommodate the increase of procedures in Canterbury.

Deputy chief executive at the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, Liz Shutler, said there are a “number of reasons” why this new plan will improve patients outcomes in the winter.

She said: “One of the issues we faced last winter was we had so many medical patients coming in, particularly to QEQM and the William Harvey, that they began to outline into the surgical wards.

“That’s not great for a number of reasons as you have medical patients on surgical wards that doctors then have to travel to, so other patients don’t get seen as regularly and their length of stay increases.

“This also stops elective operations. We didn’t do any elected operations last winter for a period of four months.

“So we are going to kick off this pilot over winter to begin to test whether or not having elective surgery on a site that doesn’t have an emergency medical intake actually can improve outcomes for patients.

“It will help with speed for access for patients and ensure people get their operations and hopefully their outcomes will improve.

“It will enable us to use the beds that are currently full of elected patients at QEQM and the William Harvey for medicine and will be able to open those wards in the middle of winter as we know if we don’t open those wards we will have a problem.”

There are also plans for patients and the public to be able to give feedback on the pilot and its future.

What do you think? Email kentishgazette@thekmgroup.co.uk.