To the Kent & Medway STP: Give us the choice for full A&E at Canterbury, Ashford AND Thanet hospitals!

We want an option for full, specialist A&E at all 3 hospitals in east Kent- we won't pick from the two unsatisfactory options provided...

Cutting A&E services could lead to extra pressure on the one major A&E (now called MEC) planned, whether it is sited at Canterbury or Ashford. Longer journey times will put patients at risk. Under current plans, all three hospitals might face a future with no full A&E department. There's no evidence that centralisation brings about better patient outcomes, so why put forward this costly plan at all? The public need an option that covers improvements to the existing sites.

The public consultation will take place next year, but the NHS managers at the Kent & Medway STP are asking for feedback on their two options now.

Save Our NHS in Kent is against the use of the two options that deliberately divides east Kent residents and encourages locals to fight for services in their own areas only, with the result that everyone loses.

We must unite and demand a third option for FULL A&E at all three hospitals - including Canterbury which currently does not provide this service due to cuts made previously.

The public can demand that an option where Thanet, Canterbury and Ashford all have excellent, specialist A&E services, and the NHS are legally bound to include it, otherwise their consultation is not a genuine consultation of people's opinions.

Similar to the stroke consultation, where Thanet was given no option to choose from, here we are being given no option to have three full A&E units at our main hospitals, or full maternity care. Public consultations are not supposed to narrow down options in this way, and they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

Please sign our petition, go along to the listening events and demand a third option in which all three hospitals get a full, equally excellent A&E with specialist care, plus a midwife-led AND consultant-led maternity departments. 

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