Health trust bosses say a specialist chemotherapy unit for cancer patients will not reopen until spring next year.

Last summer the Celia Blakey Unit at the William Harvey Hospital was closed following a nationwide shortage of trained nurses and high staff turnover in the East Kent NHS Trust (EKHUFT).

The decision was taken to send some cancer patients to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, while others were treated in a mobile chemotherapy unit.

It sparked anger from patients who were concerned by the longer journey time, and from MP Damian Green who said he wanted to see the unit reopen.

Alongside trust bosses, Mr Green said the aim was to train more staff so that services could return to Ashford, but this week the Kentish Express can reveal that work to refurbish the unit won’t start until the autumn, and patients will have to wait until next spring.

A spokesman for EKHUFT said: “We are creating a larger new environment to house our chemotherapy unit which will care for patients at the William Harvey Hospital.

“The decision last year was a temporary solution to a challenge that we, like many NHS hospitals, faced in recruiting staff for the unit.

“As people live longer and cancer treatments improve, we are seeing increasing numbers of patients. Therefore a larger unit with more staff is need to make sure we continue to meet patients’ needs and deliver the best standards of care.”

The news has been greeted with dismay from mum-of-three Debbie Hughes, 50, who was halfway through her breast cancer treatment when the unit was closed last year.

She said: “I’m not surprised to hear it won’t be reopening until next year. They have been getting by without it so it’s not a priority to get it back up and running.

“I think it’s appalling for a town the size of Ashford that we don’t have these facilities on our doorstep and that we are not able to access them at times when we are most poorly and at our lowest ebb.

“I went to Canterbury and would often have to wait for two hours in an overloaded unit, before receiving treatment for a further two to three hours. It was the gruelling and hard experience of my life.”

She is now recovering from a mastectomy and has been placed on a 10 year programme of tamoxifen.