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Controversial plans for a super hospital in Canterbury have been slammed as a "big waste of public money".
The mammoth £500m scheme was tabled three years ago as private developer Quinn Estates offered to spend millions of pounds on a new build at the site of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. The plan has been backed by the NHS.
Quinn's scheme - which would see a major emergency centre for all of east Kent transferred to Canterbury alongside a 24/7 A&E department - is one of two options being considered by the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
The second option would see existing hospital services enhanced at Margate's QEQM and Ashford's William Harvey, including a new major trauma unit at the Kennington Road site.
However, Kent and Medway's joint health scrutiny committee expressed "grave concerns" about the Canterbury proposal amid a heated debate about plans to "transform" health care in east Kent during a virtual public meeting yesterday.
Ashford county councillor Paul Bartlett (Con), who chairs the committee, said: “It is effectively putting the future of health care services in east Kent in the hands of a private developer. It is wholly dependent on Quinn making funds available or building the hospital in Canterbury, if that does not happen the whole scheme is lost.”
The hospital will form part of an upcoming planning application and if granted, Quinn Estates would, in return, receive permission to build 2,000 homes on surrounding land.
Mark Quinn, who is the managing director of Quinn Estates, has defended his proposal to build the £150million shell of the hospital in the south of Canterbury.
After the meeting, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I can understand Cllr Bartlett's concerns, but as a developer we have never let Ashford down as a historic partner.
"There has been enough public scrutiny in what we have suggested to think we are doing something seriously good for the people of east Kent."
Mr Quinn said he has received offers from two FTSE companies to construct the new build housing near the Canterbury hospital site, which makes the scheme "viable".
However, his sentiments were not echoed by Kent councillors during Monday's debate over finances. This comes 11 months after it was revealed that the NHS would likely need to spend £302million to kit out the new hospital.
“The last thing they need is to see everything shoved out of the QEQM and go to Canterbury...”
Medway Council’s deputy opposition leader, Cllr Theresa Murray (Lab), said: “I think this is a great big waste of public money.
“I think the best thing you can do is concentrate on making the services you have already got as good as they can be.”
The Rochester councillor warned about the city's housing development pressures and potential impact of Brexit and disruption on east Kent's roads, which she says could also affect Medway.
She added: "There is a huge problem now with access to the outer reaches of Thanet to hospital services.
“The last thing they need is to see everything shoved out of the QEQM and go to Canterbury.”
But, Kent and Medway CCG’s acute services director, Rachel Jones, said the health service believes the “only way” to deliver “sustainable” services in east Kent is to do things differently.
She told the committee: “Unfortunately the scale of difference means a formal public consultation.
“We would be heavily criticised if we made 10 emergency moves."
An updated NHS paper is expected to be presented to the joint health committee outlining the issues around the Canterbury hospital proposal ahead of a public consultation in 2021.
