EXCLUSIVE

by Simon Tulett

Emergency heart attack patients in Gravesend are being sent almost 40 miles away from their nearest hospital for treatment.

Ambulance crews are under orders to take critical cardiac cases to a central hub in Ashford, despite Darent Valley Hospital being on the doorstep.

The new rules mean patients suspected of suffering the most severe kind of heart attack face a 45-minute journey by ambulance, even though Dartford's Darenth Wood Road hospital has its own £4 million state-of-the-art cardiac centre.

Darent Valley Hospital's own cardiac specialists are being sent to the new clinic at the William Harvey Hospital on a county-wide rota system.

Bosses at NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent, the primary care trust providing the new service, say it will save lives by providing urgent treatment around the clock.

For the full story see this week's Gravesend Messenger.