REDUNDANCIES are due to be announced this afternoon at Swale Primary Care Trust following a budget deficit of £6.8 million.

It has already closed Little Glovers Ward at Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital. Thirty staff there, including nurses, ancillary workers, care assistants and cleaners, will be offered comparable work in the hospital or at Sheppey Community Hospital.

Kent county councillors had called for a public consultation and members of the Swale Patient and Public Involvement Forum are angry the ward has shut without this taking place.

It means the hospital will lose 24 beds but NHS bosses say the lack of demand for beds in the ward meant they were confident it would not have a negative effect on the community.

The redundancies are due to be announced at a press conference in the trust's HQ at Kent Science Park, off Broadoak Road, Sittingbourne.