A question mark hangs over the future of about 50 employees at an award-winning medical company.

More than half of the 97 staff who work for Cardinal Health’s Micro Medical business in Chatham Maritime could be affected by a proposed company re-organisation.

The hi-tech medical equipment firm was founded in the mid-1980s as Micro Medical, winning the Medway Small Business of the Year Award.

It was founded by Daniel Quirke and two research laboratory friends.

It was taken over in June, 2007, by US-based healthcare giant Cardinal Health, which has more than 40,000 employees world-wide and an annual turnover of $87 billion.

The Chatham employees produce portable diagnostic equipment for patients with respiratory problems. Cardinal Health bosses want to transfer production to Gort, in Ireland.

The company also plans to integrate finance, service, product support and UK sales into its Basingstoke offices. Service and repair operations will be moved to Hoechberg in Germany.

A spokesman for the company said: “A redundancy package, social plan, and support in finding new job opportunities will be provided to all impacted employees.

“In the next six to nine months, the Chatham facility will become a centre of excellence for research and development, marketing and international sales support.

"They will remain there after the restructuring and continue to focus on the development of portable diagnostics products.”