Medway's A&E unit has been handed £6m for this winter after warnings it would struggle to cope.

The move was announced in Parliament by the health secretary Jeremy Hunt and is said to be one of the biggest individual grants in the country.

Nationwide £250m is being made available this winter, including £62m to expand capacity in places like A&E.

Medway Maritime Hospital’s emergency department was recently declared out-of-date and understaffed in a review by the NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh.

The hospital’s directors have set up a temporary A&E unit while they carry out a major refurbishment in the Victorian building.

Chief executive Mark Devlin told a recent meeting: “The hospital continues to be very full. Our bed base is running at about 108% so we’re having to have extra beds.

“We’re working very hard to address this. Things are difficult now and will only get more difficult as we move back into the winter months.”

Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless praised staff as he confirmed the £6.12m grant in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

“Hospital staff have acted with extraordinary enthusiasm to, as they put it, reboot Medway following the Keogh review,” he said.

Health secretary Mr Hunt replied: “We are absolutely determined that where hospitals are failing or delivering inadequate care, we will not sit on those problems; we will expose them and deal with them.”

A joint spokesman for the NHS in north Kent - including Dartford, Swanley, Gravesham, Swale and Medway - said £10m would be available across the area.

She added: “It is well-known that both Darent Valley Hospital and Medway Maritime Hospital A&Es are extremely busy and that during the winter months, extra pressure is placed on all NHS services.

“The public can play a very significant role by ensuring that they use services such as pharmacies, their GP practice and minor injuries units for illnesses and injuries which do not need the specialist skills of A&E.”