A SCHOOLGIRL who wrote a book after spending four months in Maidstone Hospital has claimed her stay would have been "unbearable" had she been cared for at Pembury Hospital, rather than in her home town.

Fifteen-year-old Emma Ring believes she could not have coped with the long period in hospital without the daily visits from her family and friends, who are all from Maidstone.

Emma was admitted to hospital for a conversion disorder, which can lead to paralysis and causes sufferers to lapse into comas.

Under proposals currently being considered by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, specialist inpatient services for children could be moved to the new Pembury Hospital when it opens in 2010.

But Emma said her friends, who visited after school each day, and her parents, who visited up to three times a day, would have not been able to visit her nearly as often if she had been cared for at Pembury, some 16 miles away.

“I spent four months between January and July on Monckton Ward at Maidstone, and however lovely the staff were, it would have been undoubtedly been unbearable if I had not been able to have all my visitors,” she said.

“As a resident of the Maidstone area it would have been very hard for my parents to visit me every day if I had been in Pembury Hospital, instead of Maidstone. My friends were fantastic and visited me very regularly, but I realise this would not have been possible had I been further away. It was easy for them in Maidstone as they are local and my school is near to the hospital.”

She added: “I suppose some people may think that they were just visitors, and it isn’t a very significant point or reason not to move. But not to me. To me, they were a vital part of my care; knowing I had my friends and family coming to see me regularly and were nearby when I needed them, really kept me going. There’s no way I would have coped so well without them.

“I realise I am just one person expressing my view, but think how it will not only affect the child, but the worried family too, having to travel so far just to see their child in hospital. When you’re ill and confined to a hospital bed, the worst thing is to feel you are alone.”

Emma was also inspired to write a book about her illness over the past year -- Believe in Me -- which will raise funds for the ward where she was cared.

Emma’s mother, Xenia Ring, said the family had visited her morning and night, and she had also squeezed in visits during her lunchtimes.

“We all felt that she needed as much support as possible and so we were there whenever she needed us,” she said. “We visited her twice a day every day for the three months she was in and I often went in to see her in my lunch hours. That would have been totally impractical had she been at Pembury.”

Under the proposals which are currently out to consultation, only inpatient services would be affected, while children’s day care, outpatient appointments and emergency assessments would still be available at Maidstone.