News

East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust has confirmed the sale of 19th Century Royal Victoria Hospital buildings in Folkestone but insists service levels will not change.

The decision comes despite protests from a campaign group set up to protect the future of hospital, which it said was wasting £1.2m a year on heating, lighting and cleaning the "almost entirely empty" buildings.

The trust promised savings would go into NHS services in Shepway and Folkestone.

The Save Our Royal Victoria Hospital campaign feared that outpatient services still operating in the Victorian buildings could not be accommodated in the hospital's other premises, but the trust's director of facilities, Howard Jones, insisted: "No services are being removed from the Folkestone hospital, absolutely everything is staying.

"We're going to spend at least £2.5m there... we need to enhance its role as a local hospital offering a wide range of outpatient services.

"Our plans are to create a new Derry Unit on site in the new wing of the hospital."

He added that the proposal for the Victorian premises was to sell them off to a residential developer.

Open days explaining the plans are due to be held at the hospital at the end of June.