HEALTH chiefs could be taken to court if the Kent and Canterbury Hospital is reduced to cottage hospital status. The Lord Mayor of Canterbury has asked Health Secretary Alan Millburn to step in and save the K&C from final degradation.

Cllr Fred Whitemore has warned Mr Millburn that Canterbury council will do everything it can to oppose the proposals - and that includes taking legal action. He said the city council and local people would feel outraged and betrayed should guarantees given by Mr Millburn's predecessor, Frank Dobson, be undermined and services be reduced to an even lower level than previously stated.

"We will invite all of the major institutions in our area to join with us in opposition to this blatant undermining of guarantees given to local people," said the Lord Mayor in a letter to Mr Millburn. "I am also sure that the city council, perhaps in partnership with others, will use all legal powers, including Judicial Review, which are available to us to challenge this process and the final decision if there is any worsening of the decision of the former Secretary of State."

The letter, representing all three political parties on the council, addressed the latest review of hospital services by the East Kent Hospitals Trust and the suggestion that, in order to push through public finance initiatives at hospital in Ashford and Margate, K&C would be downgraded below the level guaranteed by Mr Dobson.

"We cannot believe that any process related to PFI should entitle the Trust or any other body to blatantly ignore the undetakings and guarantees given by a Minister of Her Majesty's Government, only three years after they were made," wrote the Lord Mayor.

"I am therefore asking you to intervene as a matter of great urgency in this process."

The downgrading will also be discussed at a meeting of Canterbury council's policy committee next on Monday.