Maidstone Maternity - an Update

8.58.20am GMT Thu 25th Feb 2010

The campaign to Keep Full Maternity at Maidstone Hospital has received a welcome and unexpected boost. Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidates for Faversham and Mid Kent and for Maidstone, Dave Naghi and Peter Carroll, met with the Secretary of State for Health, the Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP. An unscheduled meeting took place outside the Department of Health in Whitehall when Dave and Peter were handing in letters from over 3,000 local people opposing the downgrade.

Dave said, 'The Secretary of State happened to be making his way back from Downing Street whilst we were gathered outside his office preparing to hand in the letters. The Secretary of State very kindly stopped and asked us to explain the situation - I can assure you that we grasped the opportunity and left him in no doubt about the strength of local feeling on this issue and that people were looking to him to reverse this terrible decision. It was so refreshing to see such a senior politician go out of his way to talk with us and acknowledge the protest letters'.