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Sheppey ambulance station has reopened after a six-month £1m makeover.
The building in Main Road, Queenborough, now boasts a modern rest area and a training room named in memory of Sittingbourne paramedic Rhod Prosser.
Mr Prosser died of cancer earlier this year. (Scroll down for tribute)
During building work, crews had to began shifts from the Sittingbourne station in Crown Quay Lane but were allowed to take breaks at Sheerness fire station.
South East Coast Ambulance Trust (SECAmb) operating unit manager Will Bellamy said: “It’s been great to welcome crews back to the much-improved station.
"Our staff, and in turn our patients, will benefit from this development which ensures our site on the Island is modern and provides us with a building and facilities which are fit for the future.
“I would like to thank staff for their patience while the work took place and also Kent Fire and Rescue for their continued support which has included us using their premises as a rest point for crews.”
Crews will now start shifts at the new base before being posted to ambulance community response posts across the region.
The revamp is part of the Trust's programme to update all its bases to its Make Ready system which has specialist teams to clean, restock and maintain vehicles so medics can spend more time treating patients.
As part of future changes, crews based at Sittingbourne and Medway will move to a new station in Gillingham when it opens in 2022. The Sittingbourne station is to be closed.
The Gillingham base will have a Make Ready Centre and host 999 and 111 operations.
Rhod Prosser
More than 100 paramedics lined St Michael’s Road, Sittingbourne, to give a moving final farewell to their colleague Rhod Prosser at his funeral on April 30 as an air ambulance hovered overhead.
Mr Prosser died on April 12 from lung cancer. He was 27.
His partner of five years, fellow paramedic Hannah Webster, 25, found out later that he had been preparing to propose to her. The couple met at the University of Greenwich.
A fundraising page set up in his memory has raised more than £5,000 for Cancer Research UK.
SECAmb's Will Bellamy said: “Rhod was a much-loved and respected paramedic who will be very much missed. It is incredibly sad that Rhod lost his battle with cancer at such a young age."
Tributes on the coffin included an ambulance made from flowers. As it was driven through the heart of Sittingbourne towards the Garden of England Crematorium in Bobbing motorists stopped and parked to applaud the cortege.
The popular paramedic was described as “one of the kindest, caring, intelligent and funny people you could ever meet.”
Ms Webster said at the time: “He was amazing in every single way, kind, courageous and incredibly loving. He fought so hard but in the end it was never a fair fight. I love him to the moon and back and then a little bit more.”
She said the former St John Ambulance cadet from Ufton Road, Sittingbourne, had been determined to become a paramedic even though his mother had wanted him to go to medical school.
He was forced to take sick leave in October last year when the affects of the cancer meant he could no longer work. He leaves brothers Will, Dave and sister Annie, his mother mum Carrie and step-father Keith.
