Kent's hospital trusts are falling short of their targets for A&E treatment - with two patients in one area forced to wait for more than 12 hours to be admitted.

Figures out today from NHS England reveal not one of the health trusts in Kent that deal with emergency admissions hit the target for A&E patients seen in under four hours in September.

The recommendation set is that 95% of patients are seen within that time.

Scroll down for audio

In Kent that figure plummeted to as low as 83% in East Kent in September this year - 12% below the target.

The East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust also saw two patients being forced to spend more than 12 hours waiting between a decision being given to admit and actual admission.

It comes after the health trust responsible for running five hospitals in Kent was placed into special measures in September last year.

It followed a damning inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in March of that year, which uncovered a catalogue of problems.

In Medway, the situation was little better, with fewer than 87% of patients being seen within the target.

The latest figures are a turnaround for the trust.

In the second week of April, almost 97% of patients were seen and discharged within four hours, placing them in the top 20 best performing emergency departments in England.

The A&E unit had previously been ranked as the second worst in the country by patients in a survey.

Speaking after the latest figures were published, chief executive Lesley Dwyer said: "Providing patients with high quality care is our absolute priority.

"We know that our A&E waiting times are not consistently where we would want them to be.

"One of the reasons for this is an increase in the numbers of patients coming into A&E – this is being experienced in most hospitals across the UK.

"We continue to find it a challenge to discharge patients when they no longer need acute care.

"However, we continue to work very closely with our local health partners to address this."

Nationally the figure is the worst figure on record since 2010.

All of the main targets for A&E admissions, cancer referrals, ambulance response times and NHS 111 calls were missed in September.

East Kent trust has been approached for a comment.