GP surgeries in the county are under "tremendous pressure" due to years of underfunding, doctors have warned.

Doctors from the Kent Local Medical Committee have said funding to support busy NHS, social care and GP staff is coming too late for plans to be implemented.

The committee, which represents GPs across the county, said pressure is not solely attributable to flu and Covid, but a "consequence of chronic underfunding over the last decade accelerated by the pandemic".

The panel is writing to NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care urging them to take immediate action.

A statement signed by three medical directors, Dr Caroline Rickard, Dr Jack Jacobs and Dr Andy Parkin, added: "Winter happens every year, every year plans are drawn up and funding is required to implement them, but every year the funding arrives too late for plans to be implemented in a way that would maximise efficiency.

"It is the sticking plaster reactive response of the government that is making things worse. General Practice continues to see more patients year on year, despite a 2% reduction in General Practitioner numbers over the last three years.

"General Practice in Kent and Medway provided appointments for 990,000 patients in the month of November alone, 47% of these appointments were delivered by a GP.

"This shows that the equivalent of more than half of Kent and Medway's 1.9 million population accessed GP services in one month.

"However, a recent survey of General Practices in Kent and Medway indicated 90% are working beyond British Medical Association recommended safe working limits.

"All these figures clearly demonstrate that practices are extremely busy providing care for their patients yet cannot meet the current level of demand.

"General Practices are committed to care for and support their communities and ask patients to use their services wisely, be understanding to staff and be aware there maybe delays in routine appointments.

"Patients deserve better, and we appeal to NHS England and Department of Health and Social Care to take immediate steps to increase capacity in General Practice, reduce unnecessary workload and commit to a long-term sustainable plan to boost numbers of General Practitioners and their staff."

Dr Jack Jacobs, from Hamstreet Surgery in Ashford, said the past couple of weeks had been the busiest he'd experienced in his 15 years of being a GP and parts of the NHS are in "crisis".

He said: "There's just a whole backlog of problems – there's been the Strep A outbreak, flu, Covid lurking around and lots of patients waiting for procedures at the hospital and they all need our support.

"It has been extremely, extremely challenging to meet that demand, despite the fact we're putting on more appointments than ever before.

"It's a vast number and we're working really, really hard but we also know we're not able to meet the demand at the moment, but it has been very challenging.

"I think there is a crisis in bits of the NHS at the moment. I think acute and urgent care are just not coping. There are lots of complex reasons for that, such as not being able to get the patients through the hospital.

"I have patients I look after who are in hospital who probably could go home, to a step-down bed or a residential care home, but they're simply isn't the care in place to do that and that's absolutely critical,

"If you can't get the patients out of the hospital and can't admit them into the hospital and they get stuck in A&E, that's when ambulances start queueing."

When questioned on long waiting times, including one man who discharged himself after a 15-hour wait at Medway Maritime Hospital, the doctor admitted he was concerned.

He added: "It's such a worry and I've heard similar stories from my patients and I worry because they often do need some treatment and if they can't get it from A&E they'll often come back to us and we might not be in the right sort of place to give the treatment they need."

Under pressure Medway Maritime Hospital in Windmill Road, Gillingham, has had multiple stories in the past few weeks of long waits and poor treatment.

Before Christmas the hospital declared a critical condition.

It has since advised people to only come to A&E with life-threatening conditions.