A Kent hospital has apologised after it turned its coffee shop into a makeshift ward, with patients lying on beds where customers would normally enjoy their hot drinks.
The William Harvey Hospital in Ashford screened off its cafe on Tuesday to create emergency treatment space for A&E patients.
Staff made the desperate move after facing “significant demand” for emergency services. Some patients were even sent to other hospitals in the area.
Tracey Fletcher, chief executive of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, described the incident as “unacceptable” and promised it “will not be allowed to happen again”.
Ms Fletcher also apologised to patients who received care in these conditions.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson concurred, also calling the incident “unacceptable”, and added that hospital bosses should take “urgent action to address this”.
One relative of a senior patient accused the trust of “leaving people to rot,” stating: “It really feels like they’ve given up on the elderly.”
Speaking to Kent Online, they acknowledged the difficulties faced by hospital workers: “It’s not the staff working down here – they’re doing what they can, but this can’t be right.”
It comes as a new league table that ranks hospital trusts on overall performance placed East Kent 101st out of 134 acute care providers last week.
But the cafe incident at William Harvey Hospital isn’t an isolated case, but rather part of a much bigger crisis across the NHS.
The chief executive of East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust described the incident as ‘unacceptable’
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Earlier this year, a Royal College of Physicians (RCP) survey found that 78 per cent of doctors have been forced to treat patients in unsuitable spaces in the past month.
Nearly half have provided care in corridors, while others have treated patients in waiting rooms, bathrooms, and other spaces not designed for medical care.
The main culprit behind this crisis appears to be bed-blocking, with fellows and members reporting that patients receiving care in corridors or waiting rooms are typically awaiting admission to an inpatient ward.
This “bottleneck” stems from delays in discharging and transferring medically fit patients, caused by a lack of social care support.
NHS England has promised to ‘make progress on eliminating corridor care’ (file photo)
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PAThe impact on patients and doctors is unignorable. Ninety per cent of doctors surveyed reported that patient “privacy and dignity” are compromised when people are treated in these makeshift spaces.
Three-quarters struggle to access vital equipment, while more than half said patient safety is directly at risk.
Unsurprisingly, working in these conditions takes a toll on medical staff too, with 61 per cent reporting “increased personal stress”.
Dr John Dean from the RCP stated: “No doctor should have to resuscitate a patient in a blocked corridor or watch patients spend their final hours in undignified conditions.”
He added: “NHS England’s decision to start recording data on this crisis is a step in the right direction, but it must be made public and acted upon urgently.
“We need systemic reforms to expand capacity, improve patient flow, protect patient safety, and ensure that corridor care is eliminated – not normalised.”
Meanwhile, local MP Sojan Joseph has described the use of corridor care as an “unfortunate and unacceptable consequence of a decade and a half of cuts to NHS services”, though he acknowledged staff work “incredibly hard under very difficult circumstances”.
In NHS England’s urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, last updated this month, officials detailed actions that will address corridor care.
For example, the NHS will develop and test winter plans, making sure they achieve a significant increase in urgent care services provided outside hospitals compared to last winter.
This aims to “improve flow through hospitals, with a particular focus on reducing patients waiting over 12 hours, and making progress on eliminating corridor care”.