NHS bosses admit staffing issues sparked by a blood-testing service at Victoria Hospital posed a risk to patients before it was axed suddenly last year.

Phlebotomy clinics at the site in Deal were stopped in November, with patients told they would instead need to undergo the checks at GP surgeries.

Now, NHS representatives have revealed the hospital service - which campaigners are fighting to bring back - was blighted by staffing shortages before it was pulled.

At a meeting of Dover District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, NHS Kent & Medway chief of staff Natalie Davies said: “The phlebotomy service at Deal was being run part-time with a very, very small staff number, and as such the service was very fragile.

“If a phlebotomist wasn’t around they were pulling staff from the ward to go and take the bloods in the clinic, which of course was not good for the staffing on the ward.

“It was managing, and we hadn’t been made aware of any specific safety concerns that had materialised, but the risk was there because it was a very, very fragile service, and when Kent Community [NHS Foundation Trust] expressed that they needed to close, those were the reasons that they were giving.”

Since the phlebotomy service at the London Road hospital was axed, residents of Deal, Walmer and the villages have had to have blood tests carried out at GP surgeries.

Speaking generally, and not on behalf of Kent Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Ms Davies told councillors: “What we really clearly recognise is that this decision was not communicated well enough,” she said.

“Without doubt the population in the local area were not brought in on the decision early enough - they were not consulted clearly around what the additional provision should be.”

However, Walmer councillor Chris Vinson (Cons) was unimpressed, saying “it very much felt like the closure was sprung upon the community, without much notice at all”.

“Better communicating a decision which is widely unpopular wouldn’t necessarily have affected the unpopularity of the decision,” he added.

Local health campaigners say the GP-only provision of blood tests is damaging the quality of care patients receive.

Anne Matthews, who has campaigned for the reinstatement of the blood-testing service since its closure, told the district council and NHS representatives that people have been “waiting up to seven weeks for blood tests.”

She added this has been “causing delays in diagnosing a health problem and therefore delaying treatment”.

Fellow campaigner Marsha Horne told the committee “over 200 people a week were seen at the blood unit at Deal hospital”.

She added these were often people with cancer and other chronic conditions, or difficult veins.

When asked why the decision to end the phlebotomy service was taken, an NHS Kent and Medway spokesperson did not answer the question directly.

They said: “Everyone living in Deal has access to blood tests in the town, at their GP practice local to them.

“Phlebotomy services are part of routine care that all general practices are contracted to provide.

“Since the transition from Deal hospital to general practice, the number of blood tests has increased.

“There aren’t any plans to remove other services from Victoria Hospital.

“We are aware of feedback around the changes and have commissioned an independent review into how the service operates now. This is due to report back in the new year.’’