A hospital is to undergo a major extension to its emergency department to help deal with the huge demand on services each day.

The QEQM in Margate will get an urgent treatment centre, new adult 'majors' area and improved paediatric facilities under plans approved by Thanet council this week.

It will lead to an increase in the number of treatment spaces in the emergency department, from 10 to 52, and they will all be at a higher standard than currently exists.

The much-needed scheme, which includes additional staff car parking, is being carried out to tackle capacity problems, with a staggering 280 people arriving at the department on average every day.

Issues with the existing facilities are highlighted in plans put together by Lee Evans Partnership and Hazle McCormack Young LLP, on behalf of 2Gther Support Solutions - a company of the East Kent Hospitals trust.

These include insufficient bays in resus, including the size of the bays and isolation areas, and an increased demand on 'majors', which is where medics assess and treat more serious injuries.

The paediatric area is also deemed too small to deal with demand and mental health facilities are described as insufficient.

Other concerns raised are the size of the waiting room, which is said to be too small to implement social distancing and so queuing occurs outside the building.

"The emergency department is experiencing issues with the available capacity to deal with the numbers of patients arriving at its front door," 2Gther Support Solutions explains in the plans.

"This has grown to a demand of over 280 persons on average per day, a number that is projected to increase over coming years.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has placed additional pressure because of the need to segregate areas and monitor patients entering the department for symptoms.

"To tackle these issues there is a desire to add an extension to the building to create clinical space for the emergency department."

The two-storey Ramsgate Road wing was constructed in the early 1990s and is connected to the original hospital buildings accessed off St Peters Road.

The building was then extended to create the current emergency department waiting area and reception, and has undergone recent minor alterations and refurbishment to improve facilities.

But the planning documents say it suffers from a lack of floor space to meet growing demand and medical advances with use of more equipment.

Plans show the expansion scheme would involve two extensions, to provide the new 'majors' area, paediatric facilities and urgent treatment centre, along with the additional 16 parking spaces for staff.

"Demand is expected to grow 5% each year but balanced by use of digital technology to manage ‘front door’ visitors to the hospital," the planning documents state.

"The proposed development will enable the trust to provide appropriate sized treatment spaces and improved circulation and flows to meet future demand.

"Its layout provides flexibility to address future infectious outbreaks."

The extensions will be on underutilised land and the car park on land allocated in the Local Plan.

Operations will continue to run as normal at the emergency department during the works.