Almost 1,600 more people have gone to Medway’s A&E this winter compared with last year, putting a severe strain on the hospital.

A senior medic has warned of "very serious consequences" to severely ill patients as a result of the surge in numbers.

Today, health chiefs said emergency and out-of-hours medical services were still experiencing unprecedented levels of demand with the hospital seeing more patients than there are beds for.

The British Red Cross yesterday called the national situation a “humanitarian crisis” as hospitals across the country face similar problems.

Medway Maritime Hospital, which serves a population of 384,300 people in Medway and Swale, was under extreme pressure over the festive period and that has continued into the first weeks of 2017 with the emergency department experiencing abnormally high attendance rates.

A spokesman said they were seeing on average more than 100 extra people every day compared to last year.

A&E attendances at the hospital last winter numbered about 8,700 between December 1, 2015 and January 1, 2016 - an average of 272 a day over the 32-day period. But this winter, there were 10,295 attendances over the same time period, 321 a day on average.

Figures show there were just three days in 2015 when attendances numbered more than 300 but in 2016, 24 days out of 32 were more than 300.

The highest number of attendances in 2015 was on December 7 with 333 but in 2016 this was 405 on December 27. The lowest number in 2015 was 220 on December 23 and in 2016, 233 on Christmas Day.

Senior matron Clare Hughes said: “We’re now in the very worrying position of having more people coming in than we have beds available.

“This can have very serious consequences for seriously ill patients who need our help. We have to treat the most unwell patients first, which means that those coming to the department who have minor illnesses or non-life-threatening conditions are experiencing very long delays.

“Please consider whether our emergency department is the right option for you before coming.”