Teenagers from the Phoenix Youth Forum in Sandwich have raised concerns over plans for sexual health provision in the county.

Kent County Council has reviewed the services and a consultation is still under way.

Part of the plans could see a renaming of the outreach services, with one or two central clinics per district and a dissolution of the Sexual Health Outreach Nurses.

The fear of losing these qualified nurses has raised the biggest concern among young people at the centre in Jubilee Road.

A document drawn up in response to the consultation said: “We are a group of teenagers trying to save something we have almost certainly already lost. It should not have been left to us to do this.

“The very people making these decisions already know the impact that this will have. We believe that is why the consultation that they claimed had taken place never happened because if we had been given more notice we would have fought to stop the removal of the Sexual Health Outreach Nurse service for all of the young people of Kent and we would have fought hard because it is wrong.

“This scheme to remove the nurses and force everyone into clinics turns the clocks back 30 years in Kent and that is not something for the adult decision-making world to be proud of.”

“A wonderful service, a service we trusted is being stripped away from us." - youth forum.

Instead of outreach nurses working in the community, young people across the district will now have to travel to Deal and Dover to access services.

The services were provided by the NHS but this has now been handed to KCC Public Health and the forum is concerned this means losing qualified nurses.

The document adds: “A wonderful service, a service we trusted is being stripped away from us. We are being told to access clinics that we cannot afford to get to. Clinics that are not teen friendly, in fact we could be at serious risk, if we attend those clinics, from predatory adults. We are told to go to GPs. When was the last time you tried to get appointment? If you need the morning after pill waiting six days is not a good idea.

“The most vulnerable are being left without a service and if there is a service, nobody working on this process has had the common decency to tell us, or anybody else for that matter, what this service will be and how we access it and that is simply not good enough.”

Members of the youth forum agreed with some of the changes including longer opening hours and weekend times.

More information can be found on the Kent County Council website. The deadline for responses is Friday, October 30, by email sexualhealthviews@kent.gov.uk or post to Audrey Beadle, Room 3:45, Session House, County Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ.

A KCC spokesman said: "We have met with representatives of the Phoenix Youth Centre to discuss their concerns and will be looking at all comments arising from the consultation. The closing date for the consultation has been extended into October to ensure that more service users to take part.

“We encourage people to make their views known and this is a real opportunity for people to be able to have their say on where they think services could be based."