An A&E crisis engulfing hospitals in Kent has left record numbers of patients waiting in corridors for more than 12 hours.
Alarming figures show that nearly 2,300 people who needed a bed on a ward last month experienced delays of at least half a day.
Among them was a man who was rushed to the emergency department after he started vomiting blood, only to be forced to sleep on the floor as he endured an agonising 45-hour wait to be admitted.
Forklift driver Steven Wells, 31, said: “It was honestly like a war zone at times.
“It makes me not want to go back to hospital, as the last time was so traumatic and embarrassing.
“You have people looking down on you, stepping over you, and all you want is to just be looked after.
“I can definitely believe the stats, and it’s no surprise, but that doesn’t make it OK.
“They need more full-time proper staff in place. There’s no excuse at all for the way I was treated.
“If you’re in that much pain and discomfort, they should find a bed for you anywhere.
“The demand is just overrunning that hospital - everyone from Canterbury and Faversham is being forced to Ashford, and it must be so overwhelming.”
The 31-year-old, who arrived at hospital at 1am on 13 November and was not given a bed on a ward until 10pm on 14 November, had been taken to the William Harvey in Ashford, Kent.
This hospital’s A&E department is run by East Kent Hospitals, the branch which has been worst hit by the crisis.
Last month 1,168 patients waited at least 12 hours for a bed – the seventh highest in the whole of England – while just 45 per cent of people experiencing an emergency were dealt with inside the target time of four hours.
One woman who knows too well the trauma of these long delays is Sandra Yeman, 78, who is terrified of being admitted to hospital again after waiting an excruciating four days for a bed at Medway Maritime in Gillingham, Kent.
The great-grandmother-of-three, who has endured three spells in hospital since the coronavirus pandemic, said: “I really am frightened to go back again.
“I don’t want to be there for three or four days in absolute agony and nobody not being able to do anything about it.
“I was in an awful lot of pain and they didn’t seem as though they were doing a lot about it.
“The latest statistics don’t fill me with confidence, but it doesn’t actually surprise me because things really are getting worse – there are no improvements at all.”
Despite her concerns, the retired baker, who received an apology from the hospital’s chief executive for her ordeal, recognises the strain that NHS workers are under.
She said: “The staff were mostly excellent, but they’re under so much pressure from the get-go.
“There are so many departments which really do need so much more help. I don’t know where to say to start with.
“We need more doctors, we need more nurses, but we also need more beds and more places for people.
