Every so often, a crisis in healthcare reaches a breaking point—a situation so dire that calls for urgent change echo louder than ever before. Currently, in Kent, a mounting demand has arisen to reopen the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, as hospitals in the area grapple with some of the longest corridor waits recorded across the UK. And this is the part most people miss—reopening this facility could be the critical step needed to alleviate an overwhelmed system.
Supporters are rallying behind a petition that aims to restore full emergency services at the hospital, which was downgraded to an urgent care centre in 2005. This shift happened despite public protests, including demonstrations across London, protesting what many now see as a mistake. Now, with the public patience worn thin, the push to bring back Canterbury’s full A&E unit is gaining momentum amid alarming statistics. It’s projected that in 2025, over 14,000 emergency patients in East Kent will experience delays exceeding 12 hours waiting for a hospital bed—compared to just 36 such cases in all of 2019.
Ken Rogers, who chairs Concern for Health in East Kent (Chek) and was part of the protests over two decades ago when the hospital’s emergency department was downgraded, firmly believes that reopening Canterbury’s A&E is the most effective solution to this escalating crisis. “Enough is enough,” he declares passionately. “For more than twenty years, East Kent has borne the consequences of that decision. The result has been dangerous delays, overcrowded emergency rooms, and the return of corridor care—something we were assured would never happen again.”
In addition to the petition—which has already garnered over 7,000 supporters—Mr. Rogers has reached out directly to top government figures, including the Prime Minister, urging for a commitment to reopen the emergency department. His letter to Sir Keir Starmer emphasizes the looming population growth: “East Kent is on the brink of a significant demographic surge. Plans across Canterbury, Dover, Thanet, Ashford, and Swale will bring tens of thousands of new homes, meaning an estimated 167,000 more residents in the coming years—equivalent to creating a city larger than Oxford—yet without the necessary healthcare infrastructure, hospitals, or general practitioner capacity to support this growth.”
While nationwide trends show increasing delays in emergency care, what makes East Kent’s situation particularly urgent is how its 12-hour waits are among the worst in the country. Dr. Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, highlights the severity of long waits, warning that the widespread phenomenon of corridor care has become disturbingly ‘normal’ among healthcare professionals, patients, and administrators alike. He points out that last year alone, over 16,600 patients in England succumbed to complications arising from excessively long waits for a hospital bed—a staggering figure approximating 320 deaths each week. Dr. Higginson questions how society would react if such death tolls occurred in other contexts like traffic accidents, suggesting that outrage would be swift and demands for action loud.
The crisis isn’t merely a matter of delayed care; it reflects systemic issues such as bed shortages and delayed discharges. Recent investigations revealed that in some cases, patients were hospitalized for months after being declared medically fit for discharge—mainly because appropriate long-term care arrangements had not yet been set up or suitable nursing homes could not be found. These delayed discharges clog up beds, pushing wards to capacity and blocking new admissions from A&E, often resulting in patients being cared for in corridors. Recent photos have shown stretchers lined outside the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, due to the persistent lack of space.
Projections for 2025 are grim—by the end of November, East Kent hospitals had already recorded 13,520 instances of patients waiting over 12 hours for a bed, and with winter traditionally being peak season for hospital admissions, these numbers are expected to soar past the 13,986 cases recorded in 2024. Since the initial figures from 2019 indicated only 36 patients endured long corridor waits, the rapid acceleration of this crisis is alarming. As Mr. Rogers emphasizes, “If we don’t reopen Canterbury’s A&E now, the situation is only going to worsen.”
Reopening this emergency department is not straightforward. The original unit was closed over 20 years ago and no longer has the specialized staff, equipment, or support services necessary to operate as a full, consultant-led emergency department. Restoring it would demand significant funding at the national level, as well as a substantial increase in trained doctors and nurses. The idea of a new super hospital in Canterbury, part of broader regional health reform, was shelved after a funding application was rejected in 2023. However, amid ongoing pressures, the trust received a £29 million boost from the NHS in December to upgrade its overstretched A&E services—primarily through expanding urgent care facilities in Ashford and Margate. The plan is for these units to allow specialists to assess, diagnose, and treat patients in the same day they arrive, reducing unnecessary admissions and easing ward congestion.
Despite these improvements, critics like Mr. Rogers see them as temporary fixes, merely ‘a band-aid on a gaping wound.’ He recalls his personal experience of suffering in a hospital corridor and insists that Kent & Canterbury Hospital once provided exemplary life-saving care for the entire region. “It can—and must—do so again,” he argues. “Reinstating full acute and A&E services is crucial to ending corridor care, saving lives from dangerous delays, and ensuring East Kent receives the healthcare that respects dignity and safety.”
Meanwhile, the hospital’s chief executive, Tracey Fletcher, is currently on unplanned leave, with Dr. Des Holden stepping in temporarily. When asked about the ongoing calls for reopening Canterbury’s A&E, the hospital’s chief strategy officer, Ben Stevens, emphasized the importance of the hospital’s current specialized services, like planned orthopaedic surgeries, which help prevent cancellations during emergencies. He assured that efforts are ongoing to address the unacceptable long waits and overcrowding, working in collaboration with regional partners to realize the NHS’s ten-year plan for healthcare services.
The question remains: is reopening Canterbury’s full A&E the solution, or merely a step toward resolving a much deeper systemic crisis? And more importantly, what do you think—should healthcare priorities shift back toward restoring regional emergency services, or are current reforms sufficient to tackle these overwhelming challenges? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
