A hospital boss has apologised after a Kent emergency department resorted to using its cafe as a makeshift ward.<\/p>\n
A&E staff at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford decided to screen off the building’s cafe on Tuesday to create space for treating patients.<\/p>\n
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said the move was due to \u00ab\u00a0significant demand\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Trust chief executive Tracey Fletcher said: \u00ab\u00a0We know this is unacceptable and we are very sorry to patients who have been cared for in this way.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
A \u00ab\u00a0small number\u00a0\u00bb of patients were looked after in the cafe until emergency patients could be diverted to other hospitals in Kent, the trust said.<\/p>\n
Labour MP for Ashford Sojan Joseph said it was \u00ab\u00a0not acceptable\u00a0\u00bb to use corridors to care for patients but said staff worked \u00ab\u00a0incredibly hard under very difficult circumstances caused by a decade and a half of cuts\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
He said: \u00ab\u00a0It’s something I saw there during my time as a nurse. However, senior management across East Kent Hospitals must do more to step up and improve standards across all levels of care.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Ken Rodgers, chairman of Concern for Health in East Kent, said: \u00ab\u00a0This type of patient experience will never end unless there is serious investment in east Kent instead of sticking plaster-type cures.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Acute care in east Kent will \u00ab\u00a0eventually collapse\u00a0\u00bb without intervention, he added.<\/p>\n
He said he had written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, inviting him to visit the area’s hospitals and calling for further investment.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for a comment.<\/p>\n
Ms Fletcher said it was \u00ab\u00a0sometimes necessary\u00a0\u00bb to treat patients in corridors despite staff’s efforts, but that use of the cafe, first reported by Kent Online, \u00ab\u00a0will not be allowed to happen again\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The trust was ranked 101 out of 134 in a league table of trusts’ performance that NHS England published earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A hospital boss has apologised after a Kent emergency department resorted to using its cafe as a makeshift ward. A&E staff at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford decided to screen off the building’s cafe on Tuesday to create space for treating patients. East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said the move was due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}