Recommendations have been made to stop funding for the Tunbridge Wells Homeopathic Hospital.

The hospital, which treats up to 1,000 patients a year, has been marked for closure after trust executives suggested that the £160,000 spent on it a year could be put to better use elsewhere.

This controversial decision was reached following a review of funding by West Kent Primary Care Trust (PCT), following a lengthy and extensive public consultation. Spokeswoman Emma Burns said: ‘The NHS has to decide the best use of money on the evidence of clinical effectiveness.’

As only one of five hospitals in the UK that provide homeopathic treatment on the NHS, the only other hospital in the area which offers such treatments is a small clinic in Bromley, which is also funded by the West Kent PCT.

Supporters of the hospital have claimed that cutting the service would be a devastating to its users and will cost the NHS more in the long run.

The Homeopathic Hospital also houses community paediatrics and a child and adolescent mental health service, but it is just the homeopathy department that is under threat.