Campaigners say they have exhausted all their legal options in the fight to stop the NHS closing stroke units across the county .

A judge at the Court of Appeal has thrown out a bid from Medway Council to overturn the ruling earlier this year to reject a judicial review into the decision by health bosses.

It means the NHS can now continue with its plan to shut three stroke units at hospitals in Gillingham, Margate and Pembury unless the decision is overruled by health secretary Matt Hancock.

The NHS previously approved plans to build three hyper acute stroke units (HASUs) at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford and Maidstone Hospital.

But campaigners and Medway Council launched legal action against the health service saying it had not acted lawfully in assessing the impact closing three units would have on patients accessing treatment around the county.

The proposals have been hugely controversial since the plans were revealed which were approved by the joint committee of Kent and Medway's Clinical Commissioning Groups last year.

Campaigners also claimed the NHS had not followed proper risk assessment guidelines.

But Lord Justice Phillips this week dismissed the appeal brought by Medway Council against the decision not to allow a judicial review in the High Court in February .

He said there were no permissible grounds to appeal against the judicial review, which initially rejected six of the eight claims made by campaigners. The final two were also turned down following further representations.

Rachel Jones, executive director of strategy and population health at NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “I am extremely pleased about the decision from the Court of Appeal.

"The original judicial review ruling found emphatically in favour of the NHS and the process we followed.

"The need to improve stroke services in Kent and Medway is as urgent as ever and this decision brings us closer to being able to move forward with the implementation of evidenced-based hyper acute stroke units, which will in turn reduce death and disability from stroke."

Mr Hancock is still considering a referral for an independent review of the decision to close down the three units at Medway Maritime Hospital, QEQM Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury.

It is now the last hope for campaigners to try to stop the closures.

Medway Council leader Alan Jarrett said he was "extremely disappointed" by the decision to refuse the council's appeal.

He said: "My colleagues and I are committed to ensuring the very highest quality health services for our residents. After continually voicing our concerns about the impact of the location of the new stroke units, we took action to ensure health colleagues were held to account for the decisions they had made.

"We launched our appeal against the High Court’s decision [which found] the Joint Committee of CCGs had acted lawfully. We believed, and continue to believe, that both the Joint CCG committee and the High Court have failed to consider health inequalities appropriately when making their decision."

"In light of this disappointing decision by the Court of Appeal, we still await the verdict of the Secretary of State after our referral of this matter to him for consideration.

"I, together with Medway’s three MPs, will continue to fight for the retention of this life saving service here in Medway.”

The NHS says it hopes to receive a decision from Mr Hancock soon to "make much needed improvements to acute stroke services".

Carly Jeffery, from the campaign group Save Our NHS in Kent (Sonik), said she was "very sorry but not surprised" the appeal had been refused.

"Judicial review is a very limited and blunt tool, and many cases where an injustice is being done fall by the wayside like this," she said.

"We must all now appeal to the Secretary of State for Health to reverse the plans"

"The judge is not obliged to consider the merits of the proposals, only whether or not the process that led to the decision was adequate or not.

"All the NHS bosses had to do was say that they had 'considered' all the many drawbacks pointed out to them by the public, campaigners, doctors, staff, the Public Health Observatory and the risk assessment report.

"They didn't have to disprove the dangers and the concerns – merely show that they had 'considered' them.

"The focus must now be on Matt Hancock and the referral back of the stroke plans that happened in 2019.

"We have written once again to the Independent Review Panel asking if Matt Hancock's decision is imminent.

"We must all now appeal to the Secretary of State for Health to reverse the plans, and SONIK will shortly be revealing how we intend to get the public involved in this."

Labour's opposition health spokesman at Medway Council Teresa Murray said the decision was "another blow" for patients in the area.

"Our towns have huge health inequalities and the decision ignores the clear evidence that sadly more people here have strokes at a younger age.

"The only hope is that the Secretary of State will permit a review. I will be writing directly to Matt Hancock to ask why that decision has been delayed. If it had happened in a timely way it may have influenced the court's ruling."

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