Kent Institute of Medicine & Surgery (KIMS), the £85m state-of-the-art hospital set to transform acute and specialist health provision in the county, has reached a major construction milestone following its ‘topping out’ ceremony.
The event, held on Monday 11 February, celebrated the completion of the external structural work of the first phase of the hospital by VINCI Construction UK, the contractors responsible for building the hospital, off junction 7 of the M20, in Maidstone.
The management and clinicians from KIMS, led by Chairman Steven Bernstein and Clinical Director Chris Thom andClinical Chairman Tony Hammond, and Dan Hollis, Regional Commercial Manager from VINCI Construction UK, welcomed more than 80 guests to the ‘topping out’ ceremony.
The event was also attended by senior representatives from Maidstone Borough Council, Kent County Council, GE Capital, Clydesdale Bank, Magnetar Financial, David Morley Architects, DHA Planning, Gallagher Group and Locate in Kent, alongside the VINCI Construction UK team.
When the first phase of KIMS is completed it will provide patients with access to more than 300 first class clinicians and will employ 400 people by the end of 2014, on the seven acre site on the outskirts of Maidstone.
KIMS will be the first, and only, private and NHS tertiary care centre in Kent. It will provide advanced and specialist healthcare, including high quality complex procedures and acute care in areas such as cardiology, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, complex orthopaedics and surgical oncology to its private and NHS patients. It will also provide the only cardiothoracic and neurosurgery tertiary care beds in Kent.
Steven Bernstein said: “The way KIMS is being built, designed and equipped is driven by our clinicians, and the single focus is on how best to deliver world class care for our patients. With construction on budget, and on schedule, we are very excited about delivering a centre of excellence in terms of private and NHS healthcare for Kent.
“The ‘topping out’ marks an important milestone on our way to welcoming our first patients in April next year. When fully open KIMS will offer a medical campus and acute specialisthealthcare treatments to the people of Kent, that are currently only available to them in the large central London hospitals.”
Maidstone resident and VINCI Construction UK Regional Commercial Manager to Major Projects, Dan Hollis, said:
“We are delighted with the progress made to date and we highly commend all of the parties who have helped us to achieve this. Despite somewhat challenging weather over the last 11 months, today marks an important milestone with us on target to deliver this state-of-the-art hospital both on time and on budget for KIMS and the people of Kent.”
For further information on KIMS visit www.kims.org.uk