Ken Rogers is a long-time campaigner for Concern for Health in East Kent. Read more at KentOnline.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Ken, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Great to have you on the programme.
00:04You've previously said that Kent was on track to enduring its worst ever winter crisis.
00:09That now seems to be a reality. What's been your reaction to these numbers this morning?
00:15Well, unfortunately, it's not surprising. This has been on the cards from early next year. In fact,
00:22probably years ago, it's a build-up. The worst crisis before in East Kent
00:29was 2017, when we had bad times then. But the fact that people are working in corridors,
00:37and believe me, I was one of those some time ago, probably 2001, 2002. I spent three days in a
00:44corridor in one of the hospitals. Nothing's changed, and nothing will get better until
00:49something radically is done about some finance in East Kent.
00:55And what is it that would you say is the problem? Does it go beyond money? I mean,
01:01why is it that we're ending up with patients in corridors?
01:05Well, obviously, it goes beyond money. But I mean, I have to say we have some fantastic staff
01:11in all the hospitals in East Kent. They have been brilliant, and I've personally seen it.
01:18But unfortunately, because of the way that the service is designed in the three hospitals,
01:25and they've been long waiting some transformation, I think that's one of the problems.
01:30We hear a lot about, you know, the term used to be bed blockers, that's now called
01:36delayed discharge. That's not going to go away. And we all seem to blame it. We keep saying,
01:41oh, there's these many people in hospital that can't go home because there's no beds at home.
01:46Well, there isn't. The fact is that in 2016, they tried to remove 200 beds from the hospitals
01:54around here. We fought that. They didn't do it. Now, I think they are quite happy to say
02:02that they need more beds, and we just need more beds. A delayed discharge, whatever you like to
02:08say, will not go away. We need more beds in East Kent, and we need the investment for that to come
02:15forward. And of course, there was the proposed Canterbury A&E that was put ahead, whether that
02:21was what form that was going to be in, if it was going to be an adjustment to the current hospital,
02:24or if it was building a brand new one. Would that have prevented this from happening?
02:32Most certainly would. If it had been built by now, and it would have been built by now,
02:36that original suggestion was December 2017. If that had been built by now, that would have
02:44alleviated all the problem. We would have been able to transform the services,
02:48and whether that was a new hospital in Canterbury, or whether that was the upgrade of
02:54Ashford and the upgrade of Margate, it certainly would have solved the problem.
02:58Bear in mind, that's been a problem since 2010. The first time we asked for investment to build
03:06a new hospital was 2014. We went to see the health minister, Jeremy, and thought in 2017,
03:15it was put on the boards. We had the option one and option two. And then of course, the NHS has
03:21dragged its feet, dragged its feet, dragged its feet, and here we are now. It's not going to go
03:25better. At some stage, it's going to collapse. And of course, all of these problems would
03:32would cost a lot of money if we were to build another hospital in Canterbury. I know that
03:37that would eventually come back on the working person if it meant, you know, raising taxes.
03:42The government have said they're not keen on doing that. Is that a promise they're going to have to
03:47break? Well, if they're going to look after patients, that's the promise they're going to
03:53have to break. You know what, round back in 1996, when we started campaigning, we asked all of the
03:59members of our group and others, would they be happy to pay 20p extra national insurance per week
04:08to build a new hospital to provide better health care? And everybody said yes. That's the problem.
04:14You need the investment. The one thing that's missing from the NHS is the commerciality. All
04:20right, we know there's some problems there. And you know, things are money wasted some places,
04:25but we don't seem to get that in the right place. We always try to save money. And this is what
04:33results in patient care. We try to save money, but we don't save money in the right places.
04:38And we've heard from previously one of the trusts in East Kent saying that while we do all we can
04:44to ensure all patients receive timely care, our emergency departments are experiencing
04:48exceptionally high levels of demand with winter illnesses. We encourage everybody who is eligible
04:53for a flu or COVID vaccination to take the opportunity to protect themselves this winter.
04:59Ken, it's been lovely to have you on this morning. Thank you very much for joining us. I'm sure
05:02it's a problem that we'll be discussing with you very much so in the future.
05:07Thanks very much.