A HOSPITAL trust accused of having too few nurses and not enough beds has pledged to put more money into recruiting more staff.

Hospitals in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells was criticized by the district’s PPI (Patient Public Involvement) Forum in its latest annual health check.

The report quoted patients who were surveyed and other research, and said there are not enough nurses on the wards, which impacted on patient care.

The PPI report also found that a shortage of beds meant problems with the way the hospital’s A&E department ran, as patients could not be moved from A&E quickly enough.

This led to some patients being held in ambulances outside Maidstone and the Kent and Sussex hospitals.

But it also found patients generally commented favourably on their care and there had been improvements in hygiene and infection control.

The report comes just months after a Healthcare Commision report exposed hygiene failures leading to large C-diff outbreaks which led to at least 90 deaths over two years.

A trust spokesman said: "We know that we need more nurses and there is now sufficient funding available to enable us to pay for the nurses we need.

"We have already launched an active campaign to recruit experienced staff who can care for our patients properly and last week alone we recruited 36 new nurses and are interviewing more in the next week.

"We have made resolving our financial problems a priority but not at the expense of patient care."

Full report in Friday's Kent Messenger.