CONSULTANTS have warned trust chiefs of their grave concerns at proposals to centralise key acute services away from Maidstone Hospital.

In an unprecedented move, a petition signed by more than 50 senior clinicians based in Maidstone was delivered this week to Rose Gibb, chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

It reads: "We believe the proposed cuts at the Maidstone Hospital to be dangerous, ill advised and unnecessary.

"They will place acutely-ill patients, particularly the elderly and children, at additional risk of morbidity and death by transferring them to an inaccessible and less suitable site.

"The loss of this acute service will result in the inevitable haemorrhage of essential skilled staff. We feel the knock-on effect on the remaining acute services will lead to their progressive erosion, reducing Maidstone to an elective hospital only."

Doctors leading the protest claim the signatures amount to more than 1,000 years of experience and include senior figures from a range of departments, including many involved in emergency care.

High-profile figures opposing the changes include Maidstone’s director of accident and emergency services, the hospital’s lead clinician for anaesthetics and critical care as well as the chairman of the trust’s consultants committee.

Health bosses want to separate routine from emergency operations for broken bone injuries, claiming it will improve patient care by reducing cancelled operations and infection rates of superbugs such as MRSA. A three-month discussion document is currently out for consultation before final proposals are decided in the New Year.

The preferred option of the trust’s orthopaedic surgical team is to centralise trauma care at the Kent and Sussex Hospital initially and, from 2010, at the new Pembury Hospital. Maidstone Hospital will become the base for elective surgery such as hip replacement, with the new centre treating about 2,000 people per year.