An ambitious £190,000 scheme to expand a hospital is expected to be completed next month as health bosses hope to lessen the strain on accident and emergency departments.

Work at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Herne Bay to move its urgent treatment centre into the infirmary’s former – and now-vacant – orthotics lab has begun.

The hospital's League of Friends is putting £100,000 towards the project, which will see the unit kitted out with six clinical rooms.

Charity chairman Gillian Fowler said: “They needed more room; they currently only have three rooms.

“It was agreed that the orthotics lab would be the ideal place; they’d be their own unit and have a doctor’s surgery and clinics.

“The League is paying £100,000 towards it and property services is picking up the rest, which will probably be another £80,000 or £90,000.”

Ms Fowler says the upgrades will allow patients to be seen “quickly and without hassle”.

Once the project is completed, the space currently occupied by the urgent treatment centre will be made vacant.

And Ms Fowler says it could provide the hospital’s wound centre with added rooms, which is experiencing “high demand” for its service.

Ms Fowler added: “The work will be completed by the middle of May.

“It will help relieve pressure on the acute services because the idea is people won’t go to the major hospitals for an ear infection or something like that because they will come here instead.”

The town’s doctors’ surgeries were awarded the contract to run the centre, which was previously called the minor injuries unit, before it was opened two years ago.

"It will help relieve pressure on acute services because people won’t go to the major hospitals for an ear infection or something like that because they will come here..."

And speaking about the plans, Park Surgery's Dr Jeremy Carter said: "We expect to have a GP in the building and it'll give us a lot more flexibility.

"Broadly speaking, it'll be double the size of the current urgent treatment centre and it'll be another place in the town where patients can be seen.”

The work is the latest in a series of improvements made to the hospital, which have involved its x-ray facilities and lymphedema services.

Ms Fowler has also revealed that the Friends’ annual fete to raise funds for the hospital has been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The event, which usually raises several thousand pounds for the infirmary, was due to take place on Saturday, September 5.

To keep up-to-date with all the latest developments with your local hospitals and other health stories, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Herne Bay