Coronavirus Kent: Kent hospitals triple critical care beds
10:39, 28 March 2020
updated: 10:50, 28 March 2020
Hospitals in Kent have made some big changes to help staff cope with the ongoing coronavirus.
In just a few weeks the number of critical care beds across the hospitals in the county have tripled.
This has been done in part by putting them in operating theatres as all non-urgent surgery is postponed and asking private sector hospitals to help.
There has also been an extra effort to rapidly discharge people from hospitals, working with teams in the community to look after them at home.
They are aiming to have 30% of beds empty.
From next week stroke services, which have been subject to a controversial reorganisation, will also be changed.
Kent and Canterbury hospitals will being taking on patients under East Kent Hospitals and the rehabilitation inpatients at Maidstone hospital will move to KIMS.
This is a temporary measure and not early implementation of the restructure.
From mid-April cancer surgery will be carried out at the Kent and Canterbury or at local private hospitals at no cost.
Outpatient appointments are being carried out over the phone, video or online. Between 60 and 80% are already being done remotely.
GP surgeries are also reducing the number of walk in patients by going online, allowing doctors, nurses and patients to work from home. New software is being rolled out to help with this.
Groups of GP surgeries are splitting into coronavirus and non-coronavirus sites. Practices within these groups will work together to cover staff shortages.
There are also plans for work in the community including a testing service and support service.
And finally, a central warehouse and distribution model for personal protective equipment is being created to make sure frontline staff are being protected.
The Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group will officially form on April 1, having previously been several groups across the county.
As the team that normally plan and buy healthcare, it will be co-ordinating and overseeing the the strategy to deal with Covid-19, based on the NHS response.
In a statement, the group said: "The NHS is facing the greatest global health threat in its history. The staff are pulling out all the stops to care for patients with coronavirus and prepare for the surge in cases we know is coming.
"How the pandemic unfolds in Kent and Medway and how much pressure our NHS comes under will depend on the actions of everyone living and working in Kent and Medway. It is vitally important to promote the need for people to follow the expert official guidance that will help break the spread of infections."
