A 75-bed 'halfway house' for patients leaving hospital is set to be built at Kent Medical Campus.

Plans for the care home — which will provide facilities for people leaving hospital but not well enough to return home — were given the green light by Maidstone Borough Council this week.

The centre will provide round-the-clock care for the frail and elderly, providing a mix of rehabilitation, respite and dementia care.

It will be built at the campus, which is next to Newnham Court Shopping Village, Bearsted Road, near junction 7 of the M20, an will create more than 100 full-time jobs when it opens.

Gary Watson, director at JLL — the company advising Kent Medical Campus on property matters, said: “The development of a £10m new step-down facility and care home will help those patients in need of further support after a stay in hospital. It offers the potential to reduce delayed discharges back into the community, making it possible to treat more patients.

“The combination of KIMS Hospital, the county’s largest independent hospital, the Cygnet Health Care facility and this new step-down development, means that Kent Medical Campus is delivering on its ambition to be a centre for health to support Maidstone and the county as a whole.”

Kent Medical Campus already has permission to create 98,000m of floor space at the site —equating to 14 football pitches.

When finished it is hoped it will provide a centre of excellence for health, science and education for the county.