Health chiefs have performed a U-turn over the future of the minor injuries unit at Faversham Cottage Hospital.

The Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust had decided to close the unit – used by 1,080 people last year – after March.

But the trust back-tracked after the decision sparked outrage among residents and has now promised that the service would stay open “for as long as necessary”.

A service review carried out last year identified that the unit, which operates by calling on nurses working in other areas of the hospital to cover when needed, was not up to scratch.

The trust’s senior locality lead, Neil Fisher, said: “The current situation no longer provides the high-quality service we would expect. Elsewhere services are provided by specifically trained nurses and GPs.”

He said the trust was still looking at the possibility of local GPs providing a service from their practices and at the cottage hospital, and other options would also be investigated.

For full story see this week’s Faversham News