A hospital has shut down one of its escalation wards at short notice.

Medical chiefs took the decision to bring forward the closure of the Dickens Ward at Medway Maritime Hospital this week.

Sometimes referred to as an "overflow ward" – these facilities are often used to help with patient flow when A&E departments are experiencing surges in demand.

The hospital noted it had seen a rise in the last few weeks of so called "medically optimised" patients – which it referred to as those who would benefit from additional care such as rehabilitation, before being discharged.

As a result, a decision was taken by Medway NHS Foundation Trust chief executive James Devine – who took over the post in November 2018 – to close it down.

He said: "Dickens is an escalation ward and it was always our intention to close the ward imminently.

"We took the decision to bring forward the closure so that patients are cared for in the most appropriate care setting which may be in another hospital ward or in the community with a care plan."

It follows recent inspection visits from healthcare watchdog Care Quality Commission (CQC) which will prepare a report on the hospital next month.

"Following discussions with the CQC as part of their recent visit we reviewed the use of the ward," he added.

“We have worked together with the support of our partners in the community and our commissioners to ensure patients who were fit to go home or to a community setting were able to do so in a timely way.

"High quality safe patient care is our priority at all times, to ensure our patients receive the right care in the right place.”

The Trust was told at its last inspection in 2018 it "still has work to do".

It was rated "requires improvement" for whether its services were safe, responsive and well-led but good for whether its services were effective and caring.

Inspectors checked in on six core services: emergency and urgent care, medicine (including older persons care), surgery, critical care, outpatients and diagnostic imaging.

Head of CQC inspections Amanda Stanford noted at the time: "Medway NHS Foundation Trust has come a long way in the last five years and I am pleased to see that the team has implemented a number of changes since our last inspection in 2016.

“However, there is still a lot more work to be done particularly in ensuring a culture of safety exists across the whole of the Trust."

In March 2017, the trust was brought out of special measures after being given the rating in 2013.

The trust was praised for its work to reduce the number of falls and improve patient flow through the building, and for its dementia buddies scheme.

Catherine Campbell, CQC’s head of hospital inspection for the South East said: “We recently inspected Medway NHS Foundation Trust. After the inspection the trust told us they have taken the decision to close Dickens Ward, one of the trusts escalation areas.

“CQC will publish our reports once they have been drafted and gone through the standard factual accuracy and quality assurance process.”

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