Case Study: The Kent Institute of Medicine and Surgery, UK
The art of building
a new, clinician
led hospital
The Kent Institute of Medicine and Surgery
(KIMS) is a new £90m 15,000 square
metre hospital campus, being built near
Maidstone, Kent in the UK. KIMS has
been designed by clinicians and will be
a place of clinical excellence in providing
acute care in areas such as cardiology,
cardiac surgery, neurology, neurosurgery,
orthopaedics and surgical oncology.
Currently, there are no hospitals (public or
private) in Kent that provide tertiary level
specialist medical services to the local
population. At present, both clinicians
and patients in Kent have no alternative
but to travel to London, which can mean
the difference between life and death in
critical cases. When it opens, KIMS will
provide a ‘one-stop’ facility providing fast,
efficient, onsite consultations, diagnostic
testing and a comprehensive range of
general and complex procedures.
A long held ambition to best serve the
community through a clinician-led
approach
President of KIMS – Franz Dickmann –
explains the motivations for embarking
on the challenge of creating a new
hospital from scratch.
“We have a strong desire to put the
patient at the centre of healthcare –
offering first class facilities and care
through our team of clinicians. The only
way to achieve this is to have clinicians
fully bought-in from the outset.”
Mr Dickmann, is being quite literal when
referring to clinician ‘buy-in’. £5m has
been invested in KIMS by the 350 or so
consultants who will be practicing at
KIMS. This is the first time that consultants
have invested in a project of this kind and
reflects the level of commitment from
such a key group responsible for delivering
patient care.
“We are clinician owned and clinician led.
The way KIMS is being built, designed and
equipped is driven by our clinicians.”
Indeed, when it came to selecting the
healthcare equipment that will support
the provision of world-class patient care,
clinicians were at hub of the decision
making process.
Funding a new hospital
Whilst having clinicians behind KIMS,
significant other funding was required
from the private sector in order to
turn KIMS from an idea into reality. Mr
Dickmann and his team saw 42 potential
funders. However, securing the funding
wasn’t without its challenges and timing
did not help as this process was drawing
to a close at the time of the financial crisis
in 2008. Twice, KIMS thought they had
“We have a strong desire to put the patient at the centre of
healthcare – offering first class facilities and care through
our team of clinicians. The only way to achieve this is to have
clinicians fully bought-in from the outset.”
Franz Dickmann, President of KIMS
agreements in place with funders, and
twice the deals fell through due to the
tumultuous economic environment.
Mr Dickmann and his team had to go out
again to funders.
“When it came to funding the healthcare
equipment, we have found GE Capital to
be an incredibly progressive company.
GE Capital came up with the best deal
in terms of price and service, and also
have some excellent people, who have
been trustworthy, supportive and patient
throughout,” states Mr Dickmann.
With building on schedule and an
extensive equipment roll-out to happen
in parallel, KIMS will open its doors to
its first patients in April 2014. While the
key benefits of KIMS will be for individual
patients, it will also give a tremendous
boost to the entire local medical
community. The opportunity to interact
on a regular basis with leading tertiary
care experts will be enormously valuable
to local doctors and hospital consultants.
KIMS will invest 3% of revenue into
research and development, featuring an
on-site GE healthcare equipment training
centre and offering a major programme
of postgraduate medical education
to ensure that local doctors are fully
informed of developments at the cutting
edge of modern medicine, ultimately to
the benefit of their patients.
Our Financial Solution
•£11.5m leasing facility.
•Funding of all medical equipment
for the hospital.
•Tailored to meet specific needs of
KIMS, to scale and breadth required.
•Essential medical equipment funded
includes CT, MRI, X-ray, Ultrasound,
and surgical equipment.