PATIENTS and staff at a Bexley hospital have been left without anywhere to eat or drink because its cafe has closed.

The WRVS cafe at Erith Hospital in Park Crescent, Erith, which has been serving up teas and snacks to grateful customers for more than 40 years, shut on May 14.

WRVS area manager John Geering says he hopes the closure will be temporary, but its customers fear it may not reopen.

Patient Marilyn Gladwell of Burcharbro(corr) Road, Abbey Wood, who is blind, says the cafe is “an absolutely essential service”.

She said: “Although it is very small, lots of activity goes on there.

“Diabetics who have to eat regularly need it and so do the staff, the elderly and disabled.

“I feel very passionate about it.”

Mr Geering says the cafe had to close because WRVS cannot find a new volunteer manager to run it, despite beginning the search 12 months ago.

He explained: “It is not as easy as people think.

“It is quite an onerous task for a volunteer to take responsibility for the finance, food safety and staff rotas.”

Mr Geering said: “The cafe is so small it does not make any money, so there are no funds to pay a manager.

“We had no choice but to close temporarily.”

Mr Geering said he would use the closure period to see if the cafe could be reconfigured to include other WRVS services supporting older people which might make it financially viable.

But he warned there was no guarantee of success.

South London Healthcare Trust which runs the hospital, says it hopes to install vending machines until the cafe reopens.