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A&E changes decision passed to government

COUNCILLORS made history when they referred a decision on the future of health services to the Health Secretary.

Members of Kent County Council's NHS overview and scrutiny committee threw out the plans for changes to emergency general surgery and orthopaedic surgery at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells during a lengthy debate on Friday.

During the heated discussion, they voted instead to refer the matter to Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, by a majority of eight to five.

It was the first time the committee has exercised the right to refer a decision to her since it was given the power in 2003.

The committee had questioned Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust chief executive Rose Gibb, whose trust put forward the plans, and Steve Phoenix, chief executive of the West Kent Primary Care Trust, which had voted to approve the plans in March.

Councillors had reservations about the impact of plans on local people to create a specialist emergency orthopaedic centre at Tunbridge Wells, which would mean some emergency patients would no longer be seen at Maidstone A&E.

The committee had also heard from those in favour of the plans, including orthopaedic surgeons at the trust, and some who still had reservations, including Maidstone Borough Council’s external scrutiny committee.

There had also been a lot of discussion about whether the public had fully understood the plans and their implications.

After the vote, Mr Phoenix said he was "disappointed".

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