Improving your hospitals
Working to end ‘corridor care’
Our teams are reducing the number of patients who need to wait in unsuitable spaces for a bed or treatment in our hospitals. This might be waiting in a corridor, or in a space in a ward or clinical department.
Corridor care is defined by NHS England as patients receiving clinical care for 45 minutes or more in non-designated, inappropriate areas (for example - hallways, waiting rooms) of emergency departments or wards within the hospital.
We recognise that corridor care is not acceptable for patients and is demoralising for staff. We are working with the national NHS ‘Getting It Right First Time’ team and our NHS Kent and Medway commissioners and partners, including community and mental health trusts, to end corridor care.
Same Day Emergency Care units
We’re making our emergency departments better at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.
We’re improving special units called Same Day Emergency Care. These units help doctors and nurses check, treat, and send some patients home on the same day they arrive. This means people don’t always need to stay overnight in hospital.
This is different from Urgent Treatment Centres, which help people with small injuries or illnesses.
We have been awarded £28.95m of NHSE funding across both hospitals. Work started in September 2025 and both units are to open by October 2026.
Solar Panel Project
We have secured £2.2 million from Great British Energy to install solar panels at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
The panels will be installed on top of a new canopy roof structure above a car park at the site, and will generate clean, renewable energy, while providing shade and shelter for patients and visitors.
Installation will be completed in phases with the project due for completion by autumn 2026. The canopies can be installed in sections, allowing parts of the car park to remain open throughout the project.
Infrastructure Project
The Trust and 2gether Support Solutions is leading on are undertaking a review of critical infrastructure works including areas such as fire alarms, water towers power supply, building fabric and ventilation systems.
The Trust spent around £16m on addressing the highest priority issues that have been identified last year and is expecting to spend a similar amount this year, subject to NHSE approval.
There may be some disruption as building work is carried out and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Catheter Lab Project
A £3.9million cardiac catheter laboratory at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford will ensure patients who need procedures such as angioplasty or pacemakers being fitted, will have access to brand new facilities including a recovery area and state-of-the-art technology.
The new replacement lab will also provide improved staff facilities such as changing rooms and a break room, as well as providing an improved patient and family experience.
The project is capital funded by the Trust. Work started in March 2026 and is due to be completed by the end of this year.
Hyper Acute Stroke Unit
Work has started on the new Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.
The NHS Kent and Medway stroke transformation programme for three HASUs in the county has led to units opening in Dartford and Maidstone, with the unit at Ashford being built as a second phase. East Kent Hospital Trust, working in partnership with 2gether Support Solutions, is relocating its stroke services to deliver the new purpose-built William Harvey unit which includes 54-beds over two floors, with a designated scanner, therapy areas, clinic rooms and staff rest facilities.