PROMINENT surgeons at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital have taken the unusual step of speaking publicly about what they describe as "appalling" conditions in its accident and emergency unit.

Richard Collins and Bob Heddle, senior and long-serving consultants has told The Times that the local crisis was a catastrophe waiting to happen. They condemned conditions suffered by several patients as far worse than the case of Rose Addis, the 94-year-old whose treatment at London's Whittington hospital sparked the storm last week.

The surgeons cited such horrors as elderly patients left in corridors for days or being discharged whilst semi-conscious and nurses in tears because of the conditions.

However, hospital consultant Ramzi Freij, clinical director of A&E for East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, said they were unhappy with the situation but staff were working hard and felt justifiably proud to be able to deliver good care in difficult circumstances. "They feel demoralised when they hear the kind of remarks about their work that these two consultants are making," he added.

The hospital is being downgraded under trust reorganisations and is to lose its accident and emergency department.The chaotic result has led to people being nursed in beds or trolleys in corridors and makeshift wards with no privacy, nowhere for visitors to sit or put belongings and few ways of getting attention. Recently a 93-year-old woman was left on a trolley for three days.

Mr Collins told The Times: "It is appalling. This week we have had up to 40 people on trolleys for up to two days. There was an internal inquiry a year ago into A&E, which said it was a catastrophe waiting to happen, but nothing has happened since."

He wondered if "the strategy here is being driven by a political agenda rather than what is best for healthcare.

"There is new money but it is all to do with lots of funny managers, waiting-list initiatives and so on."

His colleague Mr Heddle added: "The state of A&E is dreadful. People sit there for three or four days in an open corridor. The standards of care are unacceptable. The nurses go around in tears."

Chief executive of the East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust David Astley stressed that a wide range of actions were being taken to improve matters, including a £2.1 million spend on facilities in all three A&E departments.

"We invited the Government's own team of experts WEST (Winter Emergency Status Team) in to advise us two weeks ago," he said. "They are clear that what we are seeing is not just a hospital problem. It is actually a whole system problem, so we are now meeting daily with local GPs' representatives and Social Services so that we can take action together."