Official: Derry Unit "will not fit" at the Royal Victoria if main building sold

Folkestone Town Councillors heard last night that the proposed sell-off of the main Victorian building at the Royal Victoria Hospital can almost certainly ONLY go ahead if the Derry Unit is moved - most likely out of Folkestone. East Kent Hospitals Trust Facilities Manager, Howard Jones, admitted to the Folkestone Town Council meeting that to keep the Derry Unit in Folkestone without the main building would be "very difficult" in the remaining hospital space.

On Tuesday, a public meeting was told by Matthew Kershaw, the Chief Operation Officer of East Kent Hospitals Trust, that a potential move of the Derry Unit was being considered as it served a wider area than just Shepway, and that a "conversation" would be held on whether Folkestone was the "best place to serve the users from across the whole of East Kent".

Figures from the Hospital Trust show that over 40% of the users of the Derry Unit come from Shepway, with around 25% coming from Folkestone itself. The Derry Unit was set up around 2 years ago at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds.

Folkestone GP and Town Councillor Hugh Robertson-Ritchie called for the Derry Unit to stay in Folkestone. He said:

"The Derry Unit is an excellent facility and should stay. It's now clear that to get all current Folkestone services into the remaining sections of the hospital will be a real squeeze - and some people just don't believe it will work at all.

"Now the Hospital Trust has confirmed that if the Derry Unit does not move, they almost certainly would not have enough room to keep it on the same site if they sold the main hospital building. It's therefore hard to understand how a fair decision on the future of the Derry Unit can be made by a Hospital Trust that plans to sell the building it's in."

Folkestone Town Council unanimously passed a motion calling for all services at the RVH including the Derry Unit to stay in Folkestone.

You can sign up to support the campaign to protect NHS services, including the Derry Unit, at the Campaign web site www.sorv.org.uk. You can also sign a petition supporting the RVH run by Town Mayor Janet Andrews at a number of Folkestone chemists / pharmacies.