THE Accident and Emergency department at Maidstone Hospital looks set to close to most 999 ambulance calls.

The news that the unit will no longer see patients who need surgery being brought in by emergency "blue light" ambulance will come as a bitter blow to campaigners who fought to keep the service going.

Board members of West Kent Primary Care Trust yesterday approved the plans by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust which will mean all trauma patients needing general surgery and surgery on broken bones will go to other A&E units.

They instead gave the go ahead to a centralised emergency and orthopaedic centre at the Kent and Sussex Hospital at Tunbridge Wells, and for planned inpatient and day case surgery to be centralised at Maidstone.

But they recommended the changes could not go ahead until the outcome of the county-wide Fit for the Future health service review is published, which is not expected until June.

If the changes do not work with whatever the review proposes, they will not go ahead but if they do, they could be in place by September.

However, KCC, which has previously opposed the plans, could still refer the decision to the secretary of state for health.

Concerns

Another condition from the meeting was that senior staff must still be available at Maidstone's A&E, answering one of the local British Medical Association’s (BMA) concerns that the unit would be left without senior support.

The meeting heard the PCT's professional executive committee (PEC) had found the public concerns that Maidstone Hospital was being "downgraded" and that the proposals were finance-driven were unsubstantiated.

Hospital bosses believe the moves will improve patient safety, cut down on infection rates, and provide a 24-hour surgical and orthopaedic service.

Under the plans, if a patient is involved in a car crash on the M20, they will be taken by ambulance to a hospital other than Maidstone, but if they suffer a heart attack, they could still go to Maidstone.