The health secretary has praised a hospital following the opening of its new Emergency Department.

Medway Maritime Hospital began treating patients in the multi-million pound facility earlier this month and it's already making a difference to care, according to Medway NHS Foundation Trust chief executive James Devine.

Secretary of state Matt Hancock was joined by local MPs Rehman Chishti, Tracey Crouch and Kelly Tolhurst on a tour of the Gillingham site yesterday.

Mr Hancock was welcomed by chairman Stephen Clark and Mr Devine and met staff and patients at the Emergency Department, Maternity Unit and Prehabilitaion Unit.

It's hoped the ED, made possible thanks to a cash injection of £21 million from the Department of Health, will kick start further development at the site in Windmill Road.

The new department has created several new treatment bays aimed at reducing waiting times at a hospital which welcomes more ambulances than any other in the south east.

Mr Hancock heard about the trust's progress since it exited special measures last March and about its plans for the future.

He said: “It has been excellent to see first-hand the developments and progress made at Medway Maritime Hospital.

“The new state-of-the-art emergency department is better for patients, with an innovative rapid assessment unit to help dedicated staff provide the best possible care.

“I was also delighted to meet a family and their new born baby in the trust’s excellent midwifery-led unit which offers a relaxing and caring environment to parents.”

Hospital unveils new Emergency Department

Mr Devine said: “We were delighted to welcome Matt Hancock to the trust and proud to show him some of the fantastic work that our staff have been doing to improve the care we provide to the people of Medway and Swale.

“Our new Emergency Department is already making a real difference to our most unwell patients and I am pleased that Mr Hancock was able to see this first hand.

“It was a really positive acknowledgment of the hard work of our staff, and also of the way we are now working across the system in Medway and Swale – with the ambulance service, community services, social care, primary care and mental health provider, as well as local health commissioners."

He added: “We now have a much more integrated way of working which ensures our patients are treated in a more timely way, in the right place, this is particularly important as we enter the winter period when we know all parts of the system will be under pressure.

“We were also thrilled to demonstrate the work we are doing to support parents and their babies, and surgical patients before their operations to help them achieve the best clinical outcomes.

“We know we still have more to do to ensure that our patients receive brilliant care all of the time but I know Mr Hancock was impressed with the progress we are making."

During the visit Mr Hancock also revealed a £6.5 million cash boost for the ambulance service in Medway, which will be used to create a new station.

Rochester and Strood MP Miss Tolhurst said: "During the visit, we were able to showcase the excellent assets which serve the community at Medway Maritime Hospital, including the pioneering research and care at Medway's maternity unit.

"Medway’s maternity and neonatal unit is up there with the best in the country and its research has already made breakthroughs on early identification of Down’s Syndrome, testing new drugs and trialling new medical procedures.

"The hospital has also seen improvement in other crucial areas of care such as a reduction in mortality rate, improved emergency care, with patients no longer being treated in corridors, improved staff morale and culture of incident reporting."

Miss Tolhurst also saw the visit as an opportunity to stress the importance of stroke care at Medway after the hospital was excluded from the running to become a new hyper acute stroke unit.

She said: "The hospital has invested heavily in stroke services in recent years and it already provides care for the largest number of stroke patients in Kent and Medway. Yet despite Medway being ideally placed to become a hyper acute stroke unit, the Kent and Medway clinical commissioning groups has again failed our fast growing community.

"Our local hospital has come a long way in the past couple of years under former chief executive Lesley Dwyer and I am looking forward to building on these improvements with James Devine now at the helm. The fight to ensure we have a hyper acute stroke unit at Medway will also continue as I work closely with the Health Secretary."

To watch an interview with Matt Hancock following his hospital visit tune in to KMTV from 5.30pm.