Keeping a full maternity unit and children’s services at Maidstone Hospital is the next battleground for hospital campaigners after one victory.

Members of Maidstone Action for Services in Hospital (MASH) met after it was announced by health chiefs that emergency and orthopaedic surgery would not be moving from Maidstone Hospital in May. Instead, they will wait until the Pembury PFI Hospital is ready in July 2011.

The reasons for the delay, which included poor infrastructure at the Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells, and long journey times, were arguments campaigners had put forward since plans first emerged in 2006.

Cllr Eric Hotson (Con) MASH chairman, said the group would take advantage of the delay to harness public opposition to other potential losses.

They now want Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust to review its decision to move high-risk births to a partially-built Pembury hospital, scheduled for 2010.

That would leave a low-risk birthing unit, not staffed by consultants, in Maidstone.

Cllr Hotson added: “We need to fight on this issue now, because if we are successful, it gives a huge boost to having a full A&E at Maidstone.”

The group wants to know whether any services have already been switched from Maidstone, which might not be as easy as it sounds.

Dr Paul Hobday, who addressed MASH as chairman of the Maidstone Division of the BMA, told the meeting: “GPs don’t always know what services are provided at Maidstone Hospital. The battle is also about the need to improve what remains at Maidstone.”

A trust spokesman said seriously ill or injured children would be cared for at a specialist centre at Pembury, while some A&E procedures for children, would be provided at Maidstone.