Dover MP Charlie Elphicke will urge care beds to be included in the £21 million hospital to be built on the Buckland Hospital site.

He greeted the planning permission given by district councillors on Thursday as ‘great news’.

But he added that the priority now was to see it built – and to get care beds.

“It is a hospital – on the cottage hospital format,” he said. “The key thing now is to see care beds provided by the GP health chiefs.”

The health trust says the hospital will be ‘state-of-the-art’ and save people travelling to hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate.

“It will accommodate 21st century facilities offering patients a one-stop-shop approach,” said Liz Shutler, director of strategic development and capital planning with the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.

“Most patients will see their doctor or nurse, be sent for any diagnostic tests, where appropriate, receive their results and finally agree their care plan with the doctor or nurse – all on the same site on the same day.

“This will save patients both time and travel and be a much more efficient use of the hospital resources.”

But it does not include the care beds that were originally promised when the new hospital was planned on the Maison Dieu Road site.

Full story in the Dover Mercury tomorrow.