by Rebecca Hughes

Mentally ill patients in Medway have said they don’t want facilities moved out of the Towns.

Patients spoke out about their concerns at a meeting at the King Charles Hotel, Gillingham, as part of a public consultation on plans to close Medway’s mental health unit at Medway Maritime Hospital, A Block.

NHS Kent and Medway and the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust have proposed to close the unit, claiming it is not of the same standard as other facilities in the county and had more violent incidents than any other unit in Kent last year.

Instead they want patients to travel to Littlebrook Hospital in Dartford for future treatment.

But while patients agreed A Block facilities were poor, they said they were worried about having to travel further.

Patricia Hardy, 44, from Gillingham, who has schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, said: "I think closing A Block is a good idea because the facilities at Medway are rubbish - they have always been terrible.

"Having an ensuite bedroom like in Dartford is much better. In an ideal world, we would have facilities in Medway, but it isn’t an ideal world. But when I was ill, I needed to be close to home. To be in a hospital that was out of my town would have caused me a lot of anxiety."

Lauretta Kavanagh, director of mental health commissioning for NHS Kent and Medway, told the meeting of more than 30 service users, carers, community representatives and health professionals that too few beds were needed for Medway to make a standalone unit safe or sustainable.

She added: "The staff at Medway’s A Block do a good job of providing care but, largely because of the poor environment, people treated there have a higher chance of witnessing or experiencing a serious incident than elsewhere in the county. I absolutely cannot support us putting people who, through their illness are already more vulnerable, in that situation."

To read about the proposals and respond to the consultation, visit www.kmpt.nhs.uk/acute-mental-health-review or for a copy, email pals@kmpt.nhs.uk or call 0800 085 6606 or 01227 791281.

The closing date for responses is October 26.