A Maidstone substance misuse unit is to accept patients from West Sussex.

Bridge House, in Upper Fant Road, will provide inpatient detoxification for users from the neighbouring county after Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) successfully bid to West Sussex County Council (WSCC).

In April WSCC invited organisations to apply to provide services for their residents, awarding £4.2 million of contracts to 14 providers.

KMPT is one of 10 providers that will be available to provide inpatient care, only one of which is in West Sussex.

Three are in London, two are in Somerset, and there are units in Devon, Hampshire and Surrey.

The sites patients go to will depend on factors including proximity to relatives and space.

It is unclear if the five-year contract will make KMPT any money, as the amount paid to the trust will depend on how many West Sussex patients are treated.

The trust already provides inpatient care for people from East Sussex, Oxford, Buckinghamshire and East London, and a spokesman stressed Kent patients would be prioritised.

KMPT has undergone more than £8 million of cuts since 2011, and in west Kent half a million pounds was sliced from its budget in 2014 alone.

Countering suggestions the scheme might detract from already diminished services in west Kent, a spokesman said there would be no additional investment as the service was already up and running and no new staff would be employed.

Ward manager Joe O’Rourke said: “All our staff at Bridge House are very much one team, with each person’s role as important as the next. We are committed to providing the highest quality, safe, person-centred care, working in partnership.”

The service aims to provide safe withdrawal from alcohol or drugs through intensive support and daily activities.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the only NHS body commissioned by KCC and West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group to provide care. It delivers community mental health services for children and young people.

KMPT is commissioned by the eight clinical commissioning groups in Kent and Medway, but not KCC, to run adult mental health services.

It has also won the contract to be a provider of talking therapies in parts of Kent, alongside other providers.