A frustrated patient was involved in a stand-off with staff in a busy A&E after his friend brought in a mattress for him to lie down on.

The makeshift bed was dragged into the middle of the emergency unit at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital as the man grew tired of waiting to be seen.

Witnesses have told how his antics sparked a confrontation with nurses, who insisted the mattress was a health hazard and could block medics from reaching those in need.

But it would be a further half an hour before the man agreed to move the rubber bed and sit in a chair.

The incident comes as overstretched hospitals in Kent continue to endure long delays in A&E, with 1,893 patients last month waiting more than 12 hours for a bed on a ward - a 52% increase on last year.

Of the so-called ‘trolley waits’, 65% were at sites run by East Kent Hospitals, including the William Harvey, where the commotion broke out in the early hours of Monday.

One woman, who has asked not to be named, says she had been waiting for more than 10 hours when the drama unfolded.

She says others in the A&E unit had been waiting even longer, but believes the man at the centre of the confrontation had not long arrived.

“He had only been there an hour,” she said.

“I went to go and be examined in another room and when I came back he was lying on a mattress in the middle of the waiting room.

“Nurses and doctors told the man he could not put the bed in the middle of the room in case they needed to rush to see other patients.

“They told him multiple times that it wasn't safe. But the patient and his friend began shouting at the staff, demanding that he needed to be seen straight away.

“I had been waiting for 10 hours at this point, with others next to me waiting even longer than that.”

East Kent Hospitals has the worst A&E waiting times in the county, with just 53% of patients seen within four hours last month.

This figure rises to more than 70% at Kent’s three other acute trusts.

The anonymous onlooker at the William Harvey says “everyone is frustrated with the waiting times”, but she believes the man who brought in the bed was “wasting the valuable time of the staff”.

“The argument went on for around half an hour before staff eventually persuaded him to sit in a chair and move the mattress,” she explained.

“The doctors are already under enough strain without having to deal with this.

“Other patients in the waiting room were also becoming very frustrated as we had been waiting for such a long time. He was taking up their valuable time.

“You should go private if you don't want to wait.”

In November, KentOnline reported how one exhausted patient had been forced to sleep on the floor of William Harvey’s A&E as he waited 45 hours for a bed.

Three months later we told how an 89-year-old patient endured a “distressing and indignifying” three-day wait to be admitted to a ward at Medway Maritime Hospital.

East Kent Hospitals has previously been evasive when asked directly what is causing the long corridor waits and its A&E units to become overwhelmed.

But a major factor is understood to be so-called “bed-blocking” - when patients no longer needing treatment are kept in hospital because there is no suitable place for them to go, such as a care home or specially adapted accommodation.

It means others who need to be admitted to a ward are forced to endure “dehumanising” waits on trolleys in corridors.

The trust was again asked for an explanation for its ongoing issues yesterday but has yet to respond.

However, on Monday’s incident, a spokesperson earlier told KentOnline: “We understand that patients can feel frustrated whilst waiting in our emergency departments, especially as we continue to experience high levels of demand.

“Our staff are working incredibly hard to provide safe and timely care for patients across our hospitals while keeping them as comfortable as possible and we encourage people to contact NHS 111 online to find alternative services if they have less urgent concerns.”