Ken Rogers speaks to KMTV as parts of Kent see worst hospital wait times on record

KentOnline / KMTV

Ken Rogers is a long-time campaigner for Concern for Health in East Kent. Read more at KentOnline.

Transcript

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.

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