More than 100 patients lying in beds at Medway Maritime Hospital no longer need to be there with some having been on wards for more than 40 days.

That was the stark figure revealed by chief executive Lesley Dwyer in a week when ambulances were diverted elsewhere because the accident and emergency department was failing to cope.

Ms Dwyer, who was drafted in earlier this year in an attempt to cure the hospital’s problems, insisted the measure was simply to give the department “breathing space” as it grappled huge volumes of traffic.

The department, which remains in special measures, is treating 100,000 patients a year - more than twice as many as it is designed to handle.

Inspectors from the NHS watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, paid another visit in August and once again raised concerns.

Prof Sir Mike Richards said: “In the busiest times, the emergency department was not able to cope with the numbers of patients attending: patients in need of treatment were waiting too long to see a doctor.”

He warned that the CQC could use “urgent powers to protect the continued safety and wellbeing” of patients.

Ms Dwyer pointed to a log-jam of in-patients as one of the difficulties managers were grappling with. Referring to the 119 patients no longer needing to be at the hospital she added that the hospital had been unable to discharge them, either for complex care reasons, or because they simply had nowhere safe to go.

The new chief executive said she is disappointed with recent events but is positive things will improve.

She was very disappointed about the concerns raised from the latest CQC inspections but that the hospital will be “much better and strong for that”.

Following the CQC’s interim findings, the Medway NHS Foundation Trust asked for support from neighbouring healthcare providers.

Patients needing emergency treatment were diverted to other hospitals on Wednesday and Thursday. Of the 10 ambulances operating from Medway, six were taking patients elsewhere.

People who would normally go to Medway were instead taken to one of three other Kent hospitals, in Maidstone, Canterbury and Dartford.