During a visit to the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospitals Trust, Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced that a preferred bidder had been appointed to build a new £228 million hospital. Construction of the hospital, at Pembury, close to Tunbridge Wells, is now scheduled to begin.
Alan Johnson also announced that an additional £350,000 would be made available to the Trust to carry out a deep clean of its hospitals. He said: “The new hospital at Pembury is a hugely significant development for the people of Kent and with a new leadership team in place the Trust can now look to the future. “Since the C. difficile outbreak in 2005 the Trust has taken significant steps to bring down the incidence of infections and to make sure they have proper processes in place for managing any future outbreaks. It is vital that standards continue to improve at all three hospitals.”
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals have recently undergone a programme of improvement, including systematic cleaning of specific wards. The Trust received £300,000 in January 2007 and a further £420,000 in September 2007 to help reduce healthcare acquired infections. The additional funding announced will allow the Trust to accelerate its cleaning plans and develop an enhanced cleaning programme for all the hospitals. It will continue the positive progress the Trust has made following the outbreak of 2005, which includes a rigid policy for the use of antibiotics and measures to ensure that all patients with the infection are treated in isolation.
Alan Johnson added: “To help staff continue to improve hygiene, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells will be one of the first Trusts to receive funding under the deep clean programme. This is part of a wider range of measures that all Trusts need to take to tackle healthcare acquired infections and ensure patient safety.”
Latest figures show that C. difficile rates in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust have fallen since the outbreak in 2005 and are now just above the national average.
