Health campaigners will be pressing council candidates at a special hustings meeting this week.

Prospective councillors in Thanet are set to be quizzed on the future of the NHS on the Isle at the meeting in Ramsgate on Wednesday.

The hustings have been called by the Save Our NHS in Kent (Sonik) group and among the topics will include the closure of the stroke unit at the QEQM in Margate.

Campaigners fear the hospital's future is at further risk, including the accident and emergency department, and other issues relating to GP services.

The group says the decisions taken by the NHS will have "huge implications for Thanet" and are calling for politicians to "stand up and be counted" on the issue and lobby health bosses to fight for services in Thanet.

A spokesman for Sonik said: "The voters of Thanet urgently need to know how the people after their vote feel about the future of the NHS here."

Voters head to the polls on Thursday, May 2 and Sonik says the meeting in Ramsgate this week will give them a chance to put their questions to candidates and for candidates to put across their views.

The hustings will take place at Oddfellows Hall in the High Street on Wednesday from 7pm and is open to all members of the public.

Alongside the meeting, campaigners will be sending a questionnaire to all candidates about matters relating to the NHS.

Carly Jeffrey, a Sonik campaigner from Margate, says they want to pin down each candidate and party about their views.

She said: "As there is a lot of variance within some of the parties, we want to ask every single candidate what they think about the stroke unit, A&E and GP surgeries, to see what they think is acceptable and the best outcome for Thanet residents.

"We will also send a questionnaire to all the councillors on the Kent County Council health and overview scrutiny committee, many of whom are standing for district council roles in this round of elections."

The following candidates have accepted invitations to speak:

Green Party - Becky Wing

Liberal Democrats - Maggie Curwen

Labour Party - Helen Elizabeth Whitehead

Thanet Independents – Stuart Piper

Womens Equality Party - Kanndiss Riley

Independent - Samara Hall-Jones

Conservatives – Lesley Game

The NHS announced it would close the stroke unit at the QEQM in February as part of a £40 million reshuffle to save lives and reduce disability.

Critics claim this will have a terrible impact for patients who will have to go to Ashford's William Harvey Hospital for emergency treatment citing concerns about travel times of more than an hour.

But councillors sitting on Kent County Council's health committee have told health bosses the plans do not serve "the best interests of the health service in the area" and threatened to send the decision to the Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock.

Fellow health campaigners in Thanet are also threatening to launch a judicial review and are planning to lodge files with barristers in the coming weeks.

But the NHS maintains patients will be best served in the new model which was researched for five years to improve stroke services which are currently among the worst in the country.

Rachel Jones, Director for the Kent and Medway Stroke Review, said: “We absolutely understand the concerns that some people in Thanet have about the location of hyper acute stroke units in Kent and Medway that was agreed recently by GP leaders.

“However, it is important to note that the decision was taken after a five-year review of urgent stroke services, led by local stroke specialists. They looked at a wealth of data and evidence which shows that centralising stroke services in three hyper acute units is the right thing for patients.

"Once the new units are up and running, everyone having a stroke in Kent and Medway will be taken to their nearest hyper acute stroke unit, which will offer specialist stroke care round the clock every day of the year.

“This will ensure people get expert round the clock care in the crucial hours and days after their stroke to reduce their risk of dying, minimise their risk of long-term disability and improve their independence. We expect the hyper acute stroke units to save an extra life a fortnight across Kent and Medway – including Thanet.”

The NHS says it is continuing to assess the future of emergency and other specialist departments at hospitals across east Kent.

It is considering two options - one includes expanding the A&E at the QEQM to ensure it can treat the full range of emergencies currently available apart from strokes.

The second option would see one main A&E department across all of east Kent located in Canterbury moving all acute medical care, complex inpatient surgery and specialist services including strokes currently taking place at the QEQM and William Harvey in Ashford to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

Health bosses say under both options - which are due to be sent out to public consultation in the coming months - there will be 24/7 GP led care at Urgent Treatment Centres that are not 999 emergencies.

The centres would be based in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate and across east Kent.

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