A multi-million pound plan to close and relocate a mental health inpatient ward has been revealed.

The 14-bed Ruby Ward unit at Medway Maritime Hospital will shut and move to a new purpose built centre in Maidstone.

A consultation has now opened on the £12.65m project, which has been awarded government funding, to close the last remaining dormitory-style mental health ward in Kent and Medway.

It would mean the 16 beds proposed for the new Ruby Ward at the Hermitage Lane site, which is owned by the county's mental health service Kent and Medway NHS Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), will increase capacity by six.

The current unit at Medway Maritime is only capable of caring for 10 patients at a time despite having 14 beds.

All the beds in the new unit are proposed to be in single en-suite rooms replacing the multi-bay ward at the Gillingham hospital which currently has patients' beds separated by curtains.

The government has told NHS bodies across the country to remove its open multi-bed wards by 2024 and allocated funding to achieve it.

But one of the conditions is that a new unit must be built on a site owned by KMPT.

Trust bosses searched 16 sites across Medway but selected the Maidstone one because it is the only one it owns and will join up with other inpatient mental health care facilities.

Adapting the current Ruby Ward was not found to be possible to "meet the required standards" as it is not big enough to create single rooms and communal space for treatments and is not on a KMPT-owned site.

Ruby Ward is used for older adults, people aged over 65 who have "functional mental illness" such as severe depression, schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder.

It is currently only admitting women and takes inpatients from across Kent and Medway with the NHS no longer operating a "local beds allocation", consultation documents state.

Figures released by the NHS show 35% of patients admitted to Ruby Ward last year were from Medway with 43% from north and west Kent and the remainder from south and east Kent.

"We expect it will deliver significant improvements in the care provided to the people we support on Ruby Ward..."

The new unit will be designed "specifically to meet the needs of older adults with complex mental illness" and located in space on the site behind Priority House and the birthing centre.

The layout and en-suite rooms will allow a dedicated space for patients to receive personal care and therapies and counselling alongside group therapy and creative activities.

Dedicated areas indoors and outside for patients and visitors and facilities will help people relearn essential skills such as cooking and cleaning.

KMPT says this environment is expected to help patients recover faster and get to go home sooner.

The trust says the seven-week consultation, which will close at midnight on September 21, will be followed by a detailed feedback proposal presented to the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to make the final decision.

It is hoped this will take place in November with work starting the following month ready for the new unit to open in late 2022.

Dr Navin Kumta, GP and chairman of the CCG said: “I would encourage people across Kent and Medway to get involved in this important consultation and share their views.

“While inpatient care accounts for a small proportion of all mental health services, it is important that when people need to go into hospital the environment supports their recovery.

“I look forward to hearing from local people in the coming weeks about our proposal.”

Dr Rosarii Harte, consultant psychiatrist and deputy medical director at KMPT, said: “KMPT is fully supportive of the proposal as we expect it will deliver significant improvements in the care provided to the people we support on Ruby Ward and will offer our staff a more positive working environment.

“Providing a person with privacy helps protect their dignity and these proposals would mean that KMPT should be able to offer every person admitted as an inpatient a room of their own.

“This, in addition to access to a wide-range of therapies, helps to support the person’s recovery, meaning they will be able to return home to their families and loved ones as quickly as possible.”

Medway Labour health spokesman Cllr Teresa Murray said the group oppose the move due to the loss of other mental health beds in recent years and concerns over transport for vulnerable people getting to the new proposed unit.

"The Trust say that dormitory style wards are not fit for modern mental health treatment and that the proposed new facility will have single rooms, access to outside space and facilities that are not available at Ruby ward.

"I support having better facilities for mental health patients.

"If the trust goes ahead my main concern will be making sure concessionary or free preferably transport is available to patients with loved ones in the new ward and that transition arrangements are put into place to support patients and their families.

"This is especially important as the families and partners of patients are likely to be older and more frail too."

KMPT says its older adult inpatient service makes up less than 1% of the trust's activities in Kent and Medway with the majority receiving in-home or community care.

Beds are not allocated to particular communities where they are located and the inpatient rehabilitation service in Medway remains unaffected by the Ruby Ward proposals, the trust says.

Inpatient beds are located in Dartford, Maidstone, Canterbury and Margate for a variety of serious and complex mental health issues.

A KMPT spokesman said: "There are a wide range of services provided in Medway for people with mental health problems and mental illness, some of which can be accessed directly and some of which require a referral from a GP or community mental health team.

"Some are provided by KMPT, but other providers also deliver NHS mental health services in the area.

"Ruby Ward is specifically for older adults who are experiencing serious mental illness, and patients are admitted following a detailed assessment by mental health specialists."

Full details about the consultation, including a consultation documents, questionnaire are available here.

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