Cancer patients have been told that a chemotherapy ward will not reopen until at least the end of the month after a building company went into administration halfway through the work.

The Celia Blakey Unit at the William Harvey Hospital was closed in July 2015 due to a nationwide shortage of trained nurses and high staff turnover at the hospital.

Since then patients were told to get their treatment at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital or at a mobile chemotherapy unit in the hospital car park.

East Kent NHS Trust (EKHUFT) chiefs had initially hoped to get the unit back up and running by July last year, but the scheme was beset by delays.

Then in September last year it was announced that work on reopening the unit was set to start, with patients told it could be open by Christmas.

But despite work starting in October, the contractor responsible went into administration which added more delays for cancer patients.

Debbie Hughes, 50, from Park Farm, was among those affected when she was told she would have to travel to Canterbury to complete her chemotherapy to treat her breast cancer, despite being halfway through her care at the William Harvey Hospital.

She said: “If it reopens, it has got to be beneficial for the whole area. It’s terrible that with a growing town like Ashford that the unit at the big hospital had to close.

“For people diagnosed with cancer it is when you are at your lowest point, so it’s tragic that the unit was closed.

“I felt very let down by the decision, and we’ve heard lots of excuses since, but for us it was heartbreaking.”

Mrs Hughes had a second mastectomy last summer and is now awaiting a final tidy up operation later this year.

The chemotherapy unit at the William Harvey Hospital is being put in the Arundel Unit, and health trust spokesman Steve James said work is progressing well.

He said: “The new company has given us an estimated completion date of late February or early March. We aim to ensure a smooth transition of patients to the new premises.”