Patients kept waiting in Kent A&ES

One person a minute walks into an A&E department in Kent - with almost a quarter of patients enduring waits of more than four hours.

Alarming new figures reveal that in January close to 50,000 people attended emergency departments run by one of the four trusts in the county.

Two of them - East Kent and Medway - recorded figures ranking them in the bottom 20% of trusts in England, while the others - Dartford and Gravesham and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells - were among the country’s top performers.

But the East Kent Hospitals Trust, which runs the K&C, QEQM and William Harvey hospitals, says its waiting times are actually improving.

“The number of patients we assess, treat, discharge or admit within the national standard of four hours is improving all the time,” said a spokesman.

“In January 2019 the number of patients we assessed, treated, discharged or admitted within the national standard of four hours was 74.2%, compared to 69.3% in January 2018.

“This is despite an increase in attendances from 16,562 in January 2018 to 18,419 last month.”

“The pressures on emergency care, in particular high bed occupancy which restricts the flow of patients through the hospital, enabling patients in the emergency departments to be moved onto wards quickly, are being seen nationally.

“Our staff are working incredibly hard to care for patients well and keep them comfortable. Our plans to improve emergency care, which we have been developing and continuing to implement since last summer, are starting to show results.

“We have opened an observation ward attached to our emergency department at QEQM and will be opening a similar ward at William Harvey Hospital soon, to create more space for patients needing observation, away from the busy emergency department.

“We are continuing to work closely with our colleagues in social care and community health because discharging patients when they no longer need hospital care is very important to creating flow through the hospital, so that we can admit patients to beds on our wards as quickly as possible.

“Patients can help us to ease the pressure by remembering that our emergency departments are for emergencies and life-threatening situations only.”

The latest figures reveal that A&E performance across England in January dipped to its lowest level since the fourhour target was introduced in 2004.

The percentage of patients treated or admitted within four hours fell to 84.4% - well short of the 95% target and almost a percentage point worse than a year ago.