The health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that a vote to leave the EU could hit funding for vital frontline NHS services.

On a visit to Chatham to support the campaign for “ConservativesIN” the minister said a Brexit would lead to an economic slump and in turn, less money for the NHS

He also praised health bosses at the Medway Maritime Hospital following a meeting, saying the trust had “turned a corner” but standards were still "not quite there yet."

On the issue of the forthcoming referendum, he said:

“The big worry for the NHS is that if we have a Brexit there will be a recession, there will be a drop in our GDP and a lot less money going into the NHS and public services and that would make it very tough on the frontline.”

He claimed the Brexit camp was “peddling a false prospectus” on the best way to curb migrant numbers coming to the UK.

“The big worry for the NHS is that if we have a Brexit there will be a recession, there will be a drop in our GDP and a lot less money going into the NHS" - health minister Jeremy Hunt

“People are beginning to ask if the best way to deal with it is to trash the British economy. They are telling us that we will get all the benefits of trading with Europe but we know that all the countries that do benefit have free movement of people. So actually, it is a trade off: do you want those benefits of the single market and inward investment? If you don’t want that, are you going to raise the drawbridge?”

He added:

“What I do think is that the arguments are beginning to crystallise in people’s minds and they are beginning to understand the real risk of a recession and of jobs being lost and businesses closing down if we leave the biggest single market which we are lucky to be a part of.”

On the quality of services at the Medway Maritime Hospital, he praised health bosses and said the trust had turned a corner.

“I am incredibly impressed by the progress that has been made. I feel they are really turning a corner. It has taken a while but I think change is palpable. There is a really good partnership with Guys and St Thomas’s [hospitals] and an almost entirely new management team. If you talk to the doctors and nurses, they think things are getting better.”

Asked if he thought patients were now getting an acceptable level of care throughout the hospital, he said:

"We are not there yet. But patients are getting looked after a lot more safely than a year or so ago. People of Medway can be very proud of the progress the hospital has made.”