Around a third of ambulance patients over festive period forced to wait for more than half an hour outside emergency departments.
Around a third of patients taken to hospitals in Kent over the festive period had to wait more than half an hour outside emergency departments, figures show.
According to the statistics, 3,426 ambulances took patients to accident and emergency hospitals across the county between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.
Of those, 857 had to wait between 30 minutes and an hour to be admitted, and 255 had to wait longer than an hour.
The government target is 15 minutes.
Of the four trusts, the poorest performing was East Kent Hospitals University Foundation NHS Trust, which is responsible for the William Harvey Hospital, the Kent and Canterbury hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Queen Mary hospital in Thanet.
Of the 1,350 hospital transfers to its accident and emergency departments between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, 464 had to wait between 30 minutes and an hour while 121 had to wait longer than an hour – equating to 43% of all transfers.
On New Year’s Eve, of 194 ambulance transfers, 92 patients waited for between 30 minutes and an hour to be admitted, while 21 waited longer than an hour.
The trust has brought in a troubleshooter to oversee the hospitals during the winter period.
NHS England-appointed Dr Anne Rainsberry, who was the regional director of NHS London, to oversee the hospitals over the next few months.