Hospital A&E targets missed
PRESSURES on accident and emergency led toMaidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospital trust missing the national four-hour A&E target from December until late April. But significant im- provements have now been made. A report to the trust board in- dicated local hospitals suffered from countrywide problems of demand increasing due to win- ter pressures and there was a growth in ambulance con- veyances. In addition, weaknesses in the
newNHS 111 telephone system, with many unable to get a re- sponse, have led to an increase in patients self-presenting to hospital A&E. The board has introduced a
plan in liaison with new West Kent GP-led clinical commis- sioning group (CCG) aimed at
Chamber may
find new home KENT Invicta Chamber of Com- merce could be moving from its Maidstone home at the historic Archbishop’s Palace Gate- house. The local office of the cham-
ber –which now covers the ma- jority of Kent, having absorbed the old Maidstone chamber and, more recently, Thames Gateway – has been based at the Gatehouse in Mill Street for almost seven years. Although the chamber has no immediate plans to vacate the Gatehouse, officers are looking at other possible sites in the town as part of its future strate- gic plan. Chief executive Jo James ex- plained that export documenta- tion was currently undertaken at the Maidstone office but a large proportion of the customers now come from the Medway area, since the chamber took over Thames Gateway. She added: “The Gatehouse
is a great building and a good location. I am however looking more strategically at where we should be positioned as we now cover a much wider area.” But she stressed the chamber would not be leaving the county town. “Maidstone is a key location for us,” she said.
Annex ‘for holidays’ STEPHEN Mason has been given planning permission to convert an outbuilding into a guest annex at Tudor Barn, For- sham Lane, Chart Sutton. Maidstone Council accepted
the scheme on condition that it should be used for holiday ac- commodation only “and shall only be occupied as such for periods not exceeding more than four weeks in any one sin- gle letting,” the decision notice said.
meeting targets in the second quarter (April, May, June) of the year. This includes extra invest- ment in doctors and nurses working in A&E. A GP also works in A&E de- partments at both hospitals to help ensure emergency referrals from other GPs are directed to themost appropriate service. The trust hit target in the last
week of April and improve- ments continued in May. This
Maidstone review
THE trust board also heard that a major strategic review and devel- opment programme was under- way at Maidstone Hospital. New endoscopy and urology investiga- tion units were due to open in June. Work starts on new admis- sion and discharge lounges this summer.
led to the CCG praising in late May the trust’sA&Edepartments on recent improvements in wait- ing times which saw 98% of pa- tients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival. The national shortage of A&E doctors is alsoworrying the trust and problems in filling a senior post in the new emergency am- bulatory unit at Maidstone harms its effectiveness.
Emergency targets
AMBULANCES in Kent have been missing emergency targets. The target for categoryAcalls toarrive in eight minutes is 75% with a lower threshold of 70%. But in April theKent figure fell to 69.56%. Emergencies requiring a 19- minute response were 96.65%, beating targets.
New building
for hospital A NEW building has been pro- posed to house a discharge unit at the front of Maidstone Hos- pital, in Hermitage Lane. A planning application re- quests a building to ease trans- port flow and speed up the process of patient discharge. A supporting statement said:
“The proposed site is located at the front of the hospital and will be placed adjacent to the now redundant helicopter pad. “The unit is within easy reach
of the main wards, stairs and lifts, giving access to the first floor. The external appearance of the unit will be similar to those buildings adjacent – white profiled metal sheeting with a contrasting band, com- plete with flashings and trims all fixed to the building.” Maidstone Council will deter- mine the planning application.
Rural forum a success, thanks to volunteers
MORE than 90 people attended the first Maidstone Rural Older Persons Forum, at Headcorn Vil- lage Hall. Run by Brighter Futures, a serv-
ice of VoluntaryActionMaidstone (VAM) it was designed to interest older people living in villages and more rural areas. Guest speakers included Cllr
Eric Hotson, chairman of Kent County Council; Medway Valley Countryside Partnership; Action with Communities in Rural Kent and Rob Jarman, head of plan- ning,Maidstone BoroughCouncil. The event was funded by Kent County Council’s local schemes grant, and a member community grant from Jenny Whittle, county councillor for Maidstone Rural East. The funds received enabled
Brighter Futures to offer a free lunch, provided by Switch Cafe, and transport to the event. The event was also supported by HeadARA (Headcorn’s Active Re- tirement Association). Danny Hewis, manager at Brighter Futures said: “The popu- larity of the event proves that a forum is something older people want in the rural parts of the bor-
ough, and we hope this event will be the first of several. Certainly we have had excellent feedback. I would also like to highlight the support we had from volunteers, who worked so hard to make it a success.” For details about VAM and
Brighter Futures, forums, or vol- unteering, call 01622 677337 or go to
www.vam-online.org.uk
Samaritans report on a busy year
VOLUNTEERS at the Samaritans of Maidstone centre in Grecian Street dealt with more than 15,000 contacts during the year, the charity’s annualmeeting was told.
Director of the branch,WillMer-
rifield reported that these in- cluded 12,576 by telephone, the other 2,772 being a mix of emails, texts and visitors.
The centre has a total of 79 vol-
unteers including 16 newrecruits and is open every day. Samaritans provide a contact point for anyone in distress or despair to talk through their feelings and con- cerns.
Mr Merrifield said that as well
as the work in the branch, the team supports and trains the 24 listeners in local prisons as well as visiting centres for the home- less and those on probation.
Branch chairman Margaret Bell
told guests who included the Deputy Mayor of Maidstone Cllr
Tonbridge andMalling Mayor and Mayoress, Cllr andMrs Howard Rogers, with Samaritans branch chairman Margaret Bell and directorWill Merrifield
Richard Thick and the Mayor and Mayoress of Tonbridge and Malling, Cllr and Mrs Howard Rogers, that it takes £55 a day simply to operate the branch.
Announcing the introduction of
some new fundraising initiatives to secure the branch’s future, she said there had been significant expenditure during the year on building maintenance and this
To contact Downs Mail just phone 01622 630330
would continue for this year. The branch had a deficit of £2,038 on the year and was grateful for grants from a number of promi- nent charitable trusts, some spe- cific project grants frommembers of KCC and the efforts of mem- bers in the team to raise funds.
No ongoing financial support
was received from any central sources.
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