THE findings of a university study, claiming patients facing longer journeys to hospital are more likely to die, have been refuted by the health trust proposing changes at Maidstone Hospital.

The University of Sheffield study, published in the Emergency Medicine Journal, studied ambulance journeys of up to 36 miles.

Just over six per cent of the 644 patients involved in the study died but the study also found the further patients had to travel by ambulance to hospital, the more likely they were to die.

It found patients' risk of death rose by one per cent for every six miles they had to travel and those most affected by distance were those with severe breathing problems.

Their chances of dying were 13 per cent if the distance to hospital was between six and 12 miles and 20 per cent if this was 12 or more miles.

Under plans now being considered by the Secretary of State for Health, Maidstone Hospital would become a specialist centre for general surgery and the Kent and Sussex Hospital, in Tunbridge Wells, would be a centre of excellence for emergency and orthopaedic surgery.

This could mean people needing emergency surgery, for example after an accident, could be taken to the Kent and Sussex, or hospitals in Medway, Ashford or Dartford. It is roughly 22 miles from Maidstone Hospital to the Kent and Sussex.

A Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust spokesman said: "The report is concerned about the potential closure of A&E departments and the risk to some medical patients, who have to travel further.

"Maidstone A&E is not closing and will still treat medical emergencies. If you suffer a heart attack or have the kinds of breathing problems the report is concerned with, you will still be seen and treated in Maidstone."