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Watchdog Slams Kent Hospital's Emergency Care
10 Jul
Summary
- Patients faced over 24-hour waits in corridors at Kent hospital.
- Scans conducted without privacy screens, patients left exposed.
- Urgent and emergency care rated 'requires improvement' by watchdog.
Emergency care services at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, have received a "requires improvement" rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This marks a repeat of a similar rating from 2021 for the hospital's urgent and emergency care.
Inspectors documented serious privacy concerns, including a scan performed without a privacy screen and an elderly patient being left exposed until staff intervened. While the trust states that patients are rarely cared for in corridors now and efforts are underway to eliminate such waits, the CQC's findings highlight ongoing pressures and delays, partly linked to other hospital teams.
The CQC noted that while staff worked under sustained pressure, only about a quarter of specialist reviews were completed within an hour. Patients experienced average admission waits exceeding 27 hours, indicating significant bottlenecks within the emergency care pathway.
