Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Protesters’ plea:
Thousands of campaigners made their protests heard loud and clear as they urged health chiefs to stop cutting hospital services.
Placards and banners were waved by protesters who came out in force to show their support for Kent and Canterbury Hospital, which faces the threat of being drastically downgraded.
Senior staff shortages have already seen the east Kent health trust forced to transfer heart and stroke services out of the city to Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital.
And Campaign for Health in East Kent (Chek), which organised the protest march, fears the K&C is being primed for more cutbacks.
Its chairman, Ken Rogers, said on Saturday: “We’re here to raise the profile of what may be happening at acute hospitals in east Kent.
“We fear that we may be losing the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, that it might be downgraded to a cottage hospital. They tried to do it in 2000 but we successfully fought against it.”
As the march left the Dane John Gardens, protesters chanted “Don’t slash, don’t trash, don’t privatise our NHS” and “Save K&C for you and me”.
It is feared the hospital could be the biggest loser under the controversial Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), which proposes one super hospital in east Kent hosting all specialist services, with the William Harvey the likely destination.
A second site will offer A&E and maternity departments – like those presently at Margate’s QEQM – with the third reduced to a hospital offering elective surgery and rehabilitation services.
With most of Canterbury’s trainee doctors set to be transferred to Ashford and Margate on June 19, it is feared the K&C