Sittingbourne Health Review

NHS Kent and Medway asked people living in the Sittingbourne and surrounding areas their views about health services. We asked people to tell us their thoughts via a survey. The survey has now closed and the report has now been published and is available to view.

NHS Kent and Medway carried out an appraisal of hospital outpatient and community health services in Sittingbourne, with regards to current (and possible future) estate requirements in the area. A report has now been published and the key findings are listed below.

We wanted to understand patient experience locally in relation to access to and use of the relevant services and what the population of Sittingbourne feel about access to current local health services and reasonable travel times to attend appointments.

A total of 423 people responded to the survey with 274 completing it in full.

There appears to be some satisfaction with the actual services available and on offer. Residents are aware of services but can only access them if they have their own transport. The issues surrounding parking and access make use of available services difficult. The overriding themes that emerged were:

A large proportion of the population of Sittingbourne and surrounding areas had used medical services at the Memorial Hospital and were satisfied with them. This level of satisfaction extended to community services at the 12 GP Practices/Medical Centres around Sittingbourne.

Issues of access arose as it was felt that it was too difficult to park at the hospital and at the local community medical centres. Bus services have been cut in the locality and people without their own transport often incur great cost getting to and from appointments. Most people would welcome more GPs and would appreciate services being enhanced to match the projected growth in population.

One recommendation is to keep involving local residents in planning future services. A link to the full report can be found on the right.


NHS Kent and Medway asked people living in the Sittingbourne and surrounding areas their views about health services. We asked people to tell us their thoughts via a survey. The survey has now closed and the report has now been published and is available to view.

NHS Kent and Medway carried out an appraisal of hospital outpatient and community health services in Sittingbourne, with regards to current (and possible future) estate requirements in the area. A report has now been published and the key findings are listed below.

We wanted to understand patient experience locally in relation to access to and use of the relevant services and what the population of Sittingbourne feel about access to current local health services and reasonable travel times to attend appointments.

A total of 423 people responded to the survey with 274 completing it in full.

There appears to be some satisfaction with the actual services available and on offer. Residents are aware of services but can only access them if they have their own transport. The issues surrounding parking and access make use of available services difficult. The overriding themes that emerged were:

A large proportion of the population of Sittingbourne and surrounding areas had used medical services at the Memorial Hospital and were satisfied with them. This level of satisfaction extended to community services at the 12 GP Practices/Medical Centres around Sittingbourne.

Issues of access arose as it was felt that it was too difficult to park at the hospital and at the local community medical centres. Bus services have been cut in the locality and people without their own transport often incur great cost getting to and from appointments. Most people would welcome more GPs and would appreciate services being enhanced to match the projected growth in population.

One recommendation is to keep involving local residents in planning future services. A link to the full report can be found on the right.