A PUBLIC meeting is being held by NHS West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group [CCG] in Tonbridge next week to discuss the future of local care.
The event will be held on Tuesday [June 19] at the Angel Centre from 6-9pm.
Entry is free but booking is required at
nelcsu.engagement@nhs.net
The CCG is creating ‘local care hubs’ which are ‘part of a wider plan to provide better access to care and support in people’s own communities’.
But it adds: ‘Some health and care services need to be provided across a larger area for more people, and to be based together, in a hub.’
As the Times has revealed, the reality of this project involves a widespread centralisation of services to the detriment of smaller communities:
1 The closure of the GP surgery in the village of East Peckham.
2 The moving of the majority of clients away from the High Street practice in West Malling to an underused site in Kings Hill.
3 The closure of two surgeries in north and south Tonbridge – to be followed by the creation of a super-clinic in the centre of town.
4 The end of out-of-hours appointments at Tonbridge Cottage Hospital in favour of a new Urgent Treatment Centre at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury.
Dr Bob Bowes, Chair for West Kent CCG, said: ‘The development of local care hubs as part of our wider local care model is really exciting and will support and improve the way we deliver care to people in their own communities.
‘Over the past couple of years people have told us how they would like health and social care to be working together, with more services near or in people’s homes.
‘Hubs will play a part in delivering these things and we are now at a stage where we would like to talk to people about the work we are doing and seek views around the emerging service model for hubs.’
