ABOUT 80 GPs from the Canterbury area have signed a letter to Secretary of State for Health Alan Milburn protesting about the state of hospital services in east Kent.

The doctors, who are part of the Canterbury and Coastal Primary Care Group, say conditions in hospitals in the area have never been worse.

"Anyone of us could provide you (Alan Milburn) with a substantial list of examples of poor quality hospital care," the letter says.

It cites some of those, including long trolley waits in accident and emergency units, often several days, ever lengthening waits for elective surgery and multiple cancellations for operations.

The GPs praise the consultants at Kent and Canterbury who spoke out nationally about conditions and added that staff were working under appalling conditions and pressures.

The letter ends by telling Mr Milburn that in the GPs' opinion the current modernisation plans of the East Kent Hospitals Trust are unsafe, unequal and unsustainable and that the people of Canterbury and the coastal towns need better hospital services not downgraded ones.