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Elderly patients are not helped to eat their meals on wards at Darent Valley Hospital, a health watchdog found.

The Care Quality Commission also found some patients were not given any privacy, after the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust added extra beds on wards.

Some of the extra beds were next to window bays on the wards.

Dignity and nutrition standards in England's hospitals were examined by the commission, in their latest report Dignity and Nutrition for older people.

Inspectors found patients were offered a good choice of meals, but has asked the hospital to improve its efforts to help elderly patients to eat and make more efforts to keep patients informed about their care.

Inspectors visited the hospital on March 28, concluding: "We found that Darent Valley Hospital was not meeting either of the essential standards we reviewed."

The inspection focused on two wards, which cared for older people at the hospital which sees 200,000 people a year.

The CQC has now asked hospital bosses to send a report outlining what action they will take to improve.