Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Hospital row sparked city’s biggest rally
Protesters angry at plans to downgrade the K&C made their voices heard in November 2001...
Twenty years ago this month, thousands of people took to the city’s streets to march against plans to axe the Kent and Canterbury’s accident and emergency department. The Gazette reported that it was the largest public demonstration Canterbury had ever seen, sending a clear message to the Government: Save the K&C.
An estimated 10,000-15,000 people answered the call from pressure group Concern for Health in East Kent (Chek) on Saturday, November 17, 2001, to continue the fight against downgrading the facility.
The Gazette reported: “They marched defiantly from Dane John Gardens, through the city centre to the Westgate Towers.
“Children, the elderly, people in motorised wheelchairs, councillors, and MPS, all motivated by a sense of injustice and anger that their hospital is to be reduced to cottage hospital status, thronged the streets, banners aloft.
“As marchers arrived at the Westgate Towers and St Peter’s Place those at the tail end were still filtering into the High Street from Rose Lane.
“Despite the huge numbers, the event was good-natured and only at the end of the march did events threaten to get out of hand with an impromptu demonstration which blocked a road. There were no arrests.”
Immediately after the march, Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Cllr Fred Whitemore, told a public meeting at the Westgate Hall: “The turn-out exceeds our wildest expectations.”
Despite the huge numbers making their voices heard, the decision was made in 2002 to downgrade the A&E. An emergency care centre opened in its stead in 2005.
Today the debate is still raging on about the future of healthcare in east Kent.
A long-awaited decision on whether to create a super-hospital in Canterbury - or move all specialist services to Ashford and downgrade the city site - looks no closer to being made.