A unique video-link system is being trialled to save frailer residents having to travel to GP surgeries.

Clients at the Romney Marsh Day Centre in New Romney, including the elderly and more infirm, can have a consultation with their GP at the Martello Medical Practice in Dymchurch via camera.

The system also saves them having to make repeated trips to the surgery for long-term conditions.

And the cameras used are so powerful that they can view patients’ conditions in detail – even showing up moles.

Details of the service were revealed at a public meeting at St Mary’s Bay Village Hall.

They were relayed by Sue Baldwin, head of planning and delivery for the South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group.

She said: “Doctors can see patients by screen, and with close-ups they can even see moles.”

A similar system is being piloted in care homes in Dover.

Mrs Baldwin was speaking at a meeting held by the Shepway WI branches, which are campaigning for better services in the area.

She outline a series off efforts to improve health services in Romney Marsh and at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone.

There have long been complaints of Marsh residents having to travel as far as Canterbury for medical appointments. Saving the journey from New Romney to Dymchurch is seen as a welcome small step for those with frailties and disabilities.

Mrs Baldwin also said that the system of texting patients reminders of doctor appointments had cut non-attendances by 25% to 40%.

She added that the CCG, which is responsible for organising services, was working towards seven-day GP services, available from 8am to 8pm, as demanded by the government.

Less than half the calls for an ambulance from the Marsh ended up in a hospital admission.

The others involves treatments at scene or a judgement that no ambulance was needed.

South East Coast Ambulance Service paramedic Dan Hammond told the public meeting at St Mary’s Bay Village Hall that 1,563 out of 3,443 emergency calls (45.4%) led to hospitalisations.

He said that there had been 3,443 call-outs from Romney Marsh since April 2015, yet just 2,509 activated a medical response and the others were dealt with by the clinical control room.

Mr Hammond explained: “Of those 2,509, just 1,563 were conveyed to hospital. Others included referrals to mental health services or cases of patients who could be left at home with antibiotics.”

He said the ambulance service had an information-sharing system, so GPs would know the same day if their patients had been visited by paramedics.

Mr Hammond added that the ambulance service was aided by the Romney Marsh Community First Responders.

These are ambulance service-trained volunteers who can deliver oxygen, handle defibrillators and treat people affected by incidents such as heart attacks, strokes, asthma, diabetic emergencies, unconsciousness, choking and allergic reactions.

But Mr Hammond admitted that the ambulance service was not reaching its target of getting to patients in the most serious condition within eight minutes.

It was doing this 69% of the time when the target is 75%.

But, he added, the only local response posts in the area were New Romney’s Mountfield Road, behind Lydd’s Guild Hall and at Hythe.