Campaigners have lost their battle to save outpatient services at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Herne Bay.

It follows the decision by East Kent NHS Trust bosses to go ahead with their plan to axe the number of sites from 15 to six.

Following a £30,000 public consultation, services such as obstetrics, rheumatology, and gynaecology will now be moved to a new ‘one-stop’ site at Estuary View Medical Centre in Whitstable.

The Queen Vic League of Friends Chair Gillian Fowler helped organise a steadfast defence of the services offered at the hospital which was backed by thousands, and supported by MP Sir Roger Gale.

She said: “I’m bitterly disappointed by the decision. I suppose deep down I’m not that surprised as they have done what they always wanted to do.

“We showed them we could do everything here, but I don’t know the ins and outs of their scoring process.

“It’s very sad for the people who are going to have to travel on public transport in the winter cold. As far as the hospital is concerned we move forward and look towards other things.

“If there are ever problems with Estuary View, then we have a superb operating theatre and Heron ward is fantastic.”

Hundreds packed into the Kings Hall for two public meetings in January and March to vent their fury at proposals to remove outpatient clinics.

But at a board meeting on Friday last week health bosses were bullish that the decision will lead to improved care and lead to more convenient appointments for patients.

Chief Executive Stuart Bain said: “As we promised, we did revisit the evaluation of options for a site on the North Kent Coast and we invited representatives of the Clinical Commissioning Group and Kent County Council’s Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee to take part in this very robust exercise.

“The results reaffirmed that Estuary View Medical Centre was the best choice for the sixth outpatient site.

“We have listened to what people have said and responded by investing £455,000 into better public transport links and offering a wider range of more convenient appointments.

“This is an exciting time for the Trust and the improvements we have agreed will allow us to further develop our high quality services for outpatients.

“We now await the view of the Canterbury and Coastal Clinical Commissioning Group, who meet next month and we then look forward to implementing these changes that will allow us to provide patients in east Kent with state of the art high quality services.”