Hospital bosses have announced they are suspending the hyper acute stroke services at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

Anyone who suffers a stroke will instead be taken to either the hospital at Ashford or Margate for their initial assessment under an arrangement the hospital trust insists is “temporary”.

But health campaigners say moving the services and the doctors could have severe consequences – including death – for stroke sufferers.

Under the arrangement, however, outpatient services and long-term rehabilitation treatments will remain in Canterbury.

Dr David Hargroves, the lead for stroke medicine at the trust, said: “We need patients to be seen in the place they will get the most appropriate treatment which means, for the moment, hyper acute stroke patients being treated at Ashford and Margate for the first few days of their care before coming to K&C to continue their recovery journey.

“We are well-equipped to treat people suffering with stroke by diverting them to an alternative east Kent hospital if we need to and we do this safely without any adverse outcomes for these patients.”

The trust is under enormous financial pressure and is reorganising its services across all its sites.

Changes to the stroke service come after Health Education England recommended last month that half of the 76 trainee doctor posts at the K&C continue their training at the hospitals in Ashford and Margate.

Bosses expect the doctors to move in the next couple of months, but changes to the hyper acute stroke service are being brought in earlier due to a national shortage of specialist stroke consultants and the reliance on locum doctors, which affects junior doctors’ access to training.

Matthew Kershaw, the chief executive of the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, insists changes to services are temporary and any attempt to make them permanent would be subjected to a public consultation.

“We are committed to making sure as many patients as possible can still be cared for in Canterbury," Mr Kershaw said. "In all, the changes are likely to affect up to 50 of the 900 people who attend the hospital each day.

“We are continuing to reassure all patients who are expecting to come into hospital shortly that their appointment or procedure will take place as usual.

“Many services will continue as normal during the period of temporary changes. These include all surgical services, chemotherapy services, renal, vascular and urology services, as well as all outpatient clinics.”

Campaign group Concern for Health in East Kent fears that patients may suffer or even die as a result of the new acute stroke arrangements.

It is worried about patients being shuttled between the trust’s hospitals and says nurses working inside the rehab unit at Canterbury are particularly alarmed.

Chek chairman Ken Rogers said: “If you have a stroke, then you need to be seen as soon as possible.

“But if there are no doctors in the rehab unit at Canterbury, then patients face being placed in an ambulance and driven to Thanet or Ashford.

“That must have an effect on the safety of patients. Nurses are telling are us that patients could suffer and die without immediate access to a doctor.”

Chek is also asking how long the “temporary” changes to stroke services are destined to last and wants the trust go out to public consultation on the proposals.

“You also have to ask yourself how we got into this situation,” Mr Rogers said, “ and whether anyone is going to take the blame or be accountable for it.”