Maidstone Hospital is to get a £23million injection

by Angela Cole

More than £20million is to be pumped into Maidstone Hospital in what will be the biggest investment in its history.

The hospital, which opened in 1983, will be given a cash injection of £23m to be spent on a complete revamp of the hospital's 16 wards in the next five years.

Bosses are spending the first £2.9m on transforming the former children's Monckton Ward, which moved to the new Pembury hospital a year ago, into an Urgent Medical and Ambulatory Unit (UMAU).

A team of 45 workmen from contractor Kier moved into Monckton Ward in July and it is set to open to its first patients next month.

It will fast track patients who would have previously gone to A&E, aiming to discharge them within just 48 hours.

Clinical lead and overall lead physician Dr Chris Thom, pictured left, said: "The aim will be that a lot of medical patients will never lie down if they don't need to.

"We want to up the tempo considerably so that people are properly diagnosed and sent home promptly – most within the same day.

"Traditionally, patients have been seen first by a relatively junior doctor and reviewed later by a more senior one who will make a definite treatment plan.

"UMAU'S philosophy is to provide patients with a diagnosis and definitive treatment plan on day one – not to be put in a bed to wait for something to happen later."

Under the plans by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, patients referred by GPs will go directly to the unit for a senior clinical assessment, which managers believe could lead to 1 in 4 patients not needing to be admitted to a bed.

The ward will have a rapid assessment clinic, procedure room, medical elective day unit and 14 beds and is situated opposite the entrance to A&E, making it easy to move patients between the two.

Patients needing emergency life-saving care will still be treated at A&E.

Akbar Soorma, clinical director for acute and emergency medicine and lead consultant at A&E, said: "It is well recognised that a number of conditions can now be managed without the need for hospital admission.

"Patients will get good quality care sooner rather than waiting in hospital unnecessarily. This is absolutely the way forward."

Dr Thom said: "It is a vote of confidence. It is exciting and is a very definite step forward."