A new chief nurse has been appointed to take charge of patient care at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Flo Panel-Coates will join the trust in August, from the North Middlesex University Hospital, where she has been chief nurse since 2005.

As chief nurse/director of nursing for the Kent trust she will oversee their largest ever budget of £58 million - £5 million more than last year, which will be used to employ more nurses.

Mrs Panel-Coates has 19 years experience as a registered general nurse and her background is in emergency care.

She has also held an interim director of infection and control post, where she saw yearly reductions in hospital infection cases.

She said: "I am passionate about the fundamentals of nursing care and look forward to supporting and working alongside the trust’s nursing staff to improve standards of patient care even further."

The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust has just implemented a scheme where nurses are able to spend more time with their patients, something Mrs Panel-Coates piloted at the North Middlesex hopsital.

Nurses at the London-based hospital now spend 28 per cent more of their time each day on patient care.

Mrs Panel-Coates will take over from the trust’s interim chief nurse Christina Edwards.

She said: "We are putting in the foundations to see significant improvements in patient care and Flo is the right person to take that work forward.

"The chief nurse is one of the clinical leaders of this organisation and clinical care and patient safety are at the very top of our agenda."

The new chief nurse is also responsible for complaints, patient safety and clinical governance.