Critical incident declared at East Kent Hospitals

A critical incident remains in place at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, due to an ongoing IT issue affecting some services.

Attending our emergency departments for non-life-threatening conditions may result in an extremely long wait.

If you need medical assistance, please consider using alternative services such as NHS 111, your GP, local pharmacy or an urgent treatment centre. You can find your nearest urgent treatment centre and waiting times here - UTC live waiting times | NHS Kent and Medway

Advice and guidance are also available at 111.nhs.uk.

We are asking for the public’s support to help us protect care for those who need it most:

Only attend the emergency department for a life-threatening illness or injury.
If a friend or loved one is ready for discharge, please collect them at the earliest opportunity if you are able to do so.

As part of the critical incident response which was declared on Wednesday (29 July), we are working closely with partners across the health and care system including GPs and primary care.

We continue to review patients scheduled for planned procedures and appointments. Unless you hear from us directly, please assume your procedure or appointment will go ahead as planned.

Sarah Hayes, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer at East Kent Hospitals, said: “Our teams continue to work incredibly hard in exceptionally busy conditions to ensure patients receive safe, high quality and compassionate care. The pressure on our urgent and emergency services is extremely high, and we are focused on supporting patients who need us most.

“Declaring a critical incident enables us to keep patients safe by drawing on additional support from our colleagues across the health system.

“As always, we would like to thank our patients and the public for their continued understanding. It’s important that anyone who needs urgent medical help continues to come forward – using 999 in life-threatening emergencies and 111 for other urgent care. Anyone who is unsure about where to go should call the NHS on 111, or visit 111.nhs.uk for advice.”

During the current heat health alerts, residents are also encouraged to help keep themselves and their relatives and neighbours safe at home. You can find more information at KCC summer health webpage and NHS guidance webpage.

We can confirm the issue was not caused by a hacking or cyber incident. Our IT teams are working incredibly hard to resolve the issue and get all affected systems back to normal.

We would like to thank all patients and staff who have been affected by this incident for their continued understanding as we look to get this resolved as quickly as possible.