Kent and Medway have been ranked in the top quarter of the country for providing good quality urgent and emergency care.

In a review, the first of its kind by the Healthcare Commission, it rated a third of areas in the UK as best performing and 40 per cent as only fair or weak.

The county fitted in among the other 27 per cent of areas rated as better performing.

The commission analysed services such as A&E and out-of-hours GP services within the ‘boundaries’ of the 152 primary care trusts. It was the first time the commission has assessed how the whole system works together.

The review found more than half of patients nationally had trouble getting through to their GP and a third of out-of-hours services did not meet national requirements for answering calls.

The areas covering the Eastern and Coastal Kent (ECK), West Kent (WK) and Medway Primary Care Trusts performed well overall, especially in ambulance service phone responses and developing an urgent and emergency care strategy.

But the findings were varied over the three areas.

For example, more patients visiting A&E in the ECK area were seen within the target of four hours than in WK and Medway.

Medway performed better than ECK and WK areas when it came to in-patients experience in A&E.

Debbie Stock, urgent care programme manager at NHS West Kent, said: "We have listened to our patients about where our healthcare provision is working well and where it needs further development and will continue to engage with patients and clinicians to ensure that services are improved to the highest standard."

A spokesman for Medway PCT said: "We are pleased with the findings of the Healthcare Commission review and slightly disappointed that we narrowly missed becoming a best performing PCT.

"We are not complacent and we know there are areas where we need to do more work."

Anna Walker, the Healthcare Commission’s chief executive, said: “Urgent and emergency services are to be congratulated for the work they have done to improve access to services.

"But more could be done to get these services working together so that the right care is provided at the right time and in the right way.

"We are calling on the Government and healthcare organisations to renew their efforts to get the whole system working together so people can get the right care when they need it."