The first patients have been welcomed at Fordcombe Hospital following the purchase of the site by Maidstone and Tunbridge NHS Trust (MTW).

The hospital near Tunbridge Wells enables MTW to support the NHS across Kent and Medway by taking on a significant number of the longest waiting patients. Almost 1,600 patients have already been transferred to MTW for treatment and the Trust will see a total of 2,500 patients by the end of March.

Miles Scott, Chief Executive at MTW, said: “The Trust is working in collaboration with our NHS partners to treat those patients who have been waiting the longest. We are really pleased to be a part of this and are already seeing the impact the increase in capacity is making to patient care and experience.”

The Trust purchased the hospital in March from Spire Healthcare and following a six-month transition period took over the management of the site on Monday (1 October). The renamed Fordcombe Hospital will provide planned care in Ear, Nose and Throat, Trauma and Orthopaedics, Gastroenterology, Diagnostics and Endoscopy. The additional facilities the site provides have also enabled MTW to increase capacity at the Trust’s hospitals in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.

The 170 staff who worked at the former Spire Healthcare site have transferred to MTW.

Mr Scott added: “I want to thank all the staff at Fordcombe and teams across MTW for their fantastic support and hard work over the last six months. We continue to be one of the best performing hospital trusts in the country and we are looking forward to working with our new colleagues as we develop services at Fordcombe.”