A health campaigner has called cutbacks to Faversham's only direct bus route to the William Harvey Hospital "another horrific blow" to patients.

Ken Rogers, chairman of Concern for Health in East Kent, said a rerouting of the 666 service, meaning most buses now terminate in Ashford town centre, ignored the needs of Faversham residents.

Five out of the seven 666 services which run daily from Monday to Friday now finish at Park Street in Ashford.

Only the 7.30am and 2.45pm services from Court Street, Faversham will continue to the hospital.

Passengers for the William Harvey will now need to get off at Elwick Road and catch a high frequency route C bus the rest of the way, making the journey around 35 minutes longer.

KCC spokesman Thom Morris said the service was reduced because Stagecoach, which operates the council-subsidised route, had proposed changes leaving areas of Ashford with no bus coverage.

"There has been no reduction in subsidy of the 666 service, however, as part of Stagecoach's network review, it was identified that certain areas of Ashford, including Eureka Park and Repton Park, would be left without a bus service altogether," he said.

"This would clearly be unacceptable and therefore KCC has had to act to mitigate this impact.

"Unfortunately, KCC’s budget is fully allocated and under pressure and so we have been unable to introduce a new service – instead we have rerouted the existing 666 service to cover those areas.

"KCC appreciates this is not as convenient as a direct service, but the alternative would be to restore the link and withdraw the 666 from Eureka Park and Repton Park."

Stagecoach South East spokesman Matthew Maytum said the changes would also improve reliability.

"Buses running out to the hospital carried very few passengers and were sometimes delayed in traffic on Hythe Road and at junction 10. This had a substantial knock-on effect to the rest of the service.

"By making this change we're able to enhance the reliability of the route by eliminating a poorly used section which was in any case duplicated by a high frequency dedicated service on route C."

However the news has been met with dismay from Faversham residents.

"That's another horrific blow for residents of Faversham that have to get to the William Harvey, especially at the moment, with the services that have been temporarily taken from the K&C," Mr Rogers continued.

"A 7am [service] won't be any good to anybody. Visiting times are in the afternoon.

"We seem to be ignoring patients from Faversham and once again I make the call that we need to return services to the K&C. That's not a local service at all.

"If we are asking patients to go to the William Harvey for tests, for example, we need to make it reasonably easy for them. We should not be putting obstacles in the way and making it more difficult."

Faversham's KCC Cllr Antony Hook has vowed to fight for the full 666 route to be restored.

"I have written to Phil Lightowler, who is KCC's head of public transport, to ask him for an explanation," he said.

"I have pointed out that going to the hospital is probably the main reason why local people use this bus. Obviously the hospital does provide transport for some patients, but not for all, and not for people who are visiting friends or relatives in hospital.

"[The new route] makes the journey longer and potentially more confusing for people, but also changing buses is not great if you're disabled or injured, and if you're going to hospital you might not be too well or able-bodied.

"This seems to have been done by Stagecoach very quietly. There doesn't seem to have been any information given to the people who use the bus. It's a real dereliction of duty just to have done this, without telling me or telling local people. It's quite outrageous."