One in five people waited more than four hours to be seen in A&E at Kent's biggest hospital, in the first three months of this year.

New figures from NHS England show 79% of patients at Medway Maritime were seen within the target time from January until the end of last month.

It places the hospital joint 6th worst in England for A&E waiting times, and the situation has not improved since January, when the figures for October to December 2014 were released.

Hospitals are expected to see 95% of patients within four hours, but all of Kent's emergency departments missed the target.

And nationally, waiting times in the country's A&Es continue to get worse.

In the period between October and December last year, 92.6% of patients were seen in four hours, but this has now fallen to 91.8%.

Dartford and Gravesham was the only Kent trust to see above the national average number of patients within four hours, at 92.8%.

East Kent Hospitals trust saw 84.6% within four hours, while Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust saw 86.8%.

At Medway Maritime, 79.4% of patients were seen within four hours, the same as the previous quarter, and down from 86% from April to June last year.

A Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust spokesman said it had seen unprecedented levels of A&E attendances and admissions during the winter and this had affected its ability to meet the four hour standard for some patients.

A Medway NHS Foundation Trust spokesman added: "With our health and social care partners, we are investing significant time, effort and money to improve emergency care and the availability of beds for patient care to continue away from the emergency department.

"We have just started work on a £13 million building programme to ensure our Emergency Department is fit for purpose and large enough to cope with the 90,000 patients that come through it each year.

"This, combined with significant changes in how we operate the department, will ensure we are able to consistently deliver the level of care the people of Medway and Swale deserve.

"While the care we now deliver is improved from where it was 6 months ago, we recognise that there are occasions when it is still not at the standard we would wish, and we remain committed to addressing this."

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