A JOINT chairman of Canterbury council's health scrutiny committee has put forward a motion of no confidence in East Kent's NHS management. Cllr Marion Attwood says it is sad to have to register the fact that people in the district have no confidence in those who have their lives in their hands.

She said: "Another consultation document has just been published asking (in other words) how do you want to die? We will give you a choice, but we have decided that you will die or rather your hospital will, so now, to keep the Government happy, we are to be consulted.

"I have lost count of the number of times a consultation document has come from the East Kent Health Authority and the East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, but we are all aware that their minds are set on the decision taken more than three-and-a-half years ago.

"Little has changed except that now we learn that the cancer centre will be located at Maidstone. The clearly expressed wishes of local people are falling on deaf ears. The consultations are a sham. If they would put prejudice out of their minds and really listened they would know that our concern is over the future of the health of all those who live in east Kent, not merely Canterbury residents."

Cllr Attwood's notice of no confidence in the senior management of the health authority and trust will go before the full council at its meeting next Monday (December 17). She added: "Those of us who have campaigned long and hard know that things have got to change in the health service. The whole organisation is in chaos, there is a serious shortage of staff, money is wasted, the wards and corridors are filthy and the catering needs to be got a grip of.

"Confrontation is now the game and it need not have been so. The health authority and trust are adamant that they cannot back down in any way or they will lose face.

"In the meantime there is a leaking away of staff who are frightened they will be out of work. Kent and Canterbury Hospital cannot recruit consultants as it is viewed from afar as dying. All this must be laid at the door of the trust and health authority. We have no confidence in them and shall demand their resignations if they do not unblock their ears and listen to what we are saying."