A hospital boss has apologised after a Kent emergency department resorted to using its cafe as a makeshift ward.

A&E staff at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford decided to screen off the building’s cafe on Tuesday to create space for treating patients.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said the move was due to “significant demand”.

Trust chief executive Tracey Fletcher said: “We know this is unacceptable and we are very sorry to patients who have been cared for in this way.”

A “small number” of patients were looked after in the cafe until emergency patients could be diverted to other hospitals in Kent, the trust said.

Labour MP for Ashford Sojan Joseph said it was “not acceptable” to use corridors to care for patients but said staff worked “incredibly hard under very difficult circumstances caused by a decade and a half of cuts”.

However, he said senior management across East Kent Hospitals “must do more to step up and improve standards across all levels of care”.

Ken Rogers, chairman of Concern for Health in East Kent, said: “This type of patient experience will never end unless there is serious investment in east Kent instead of sticking plaster-type cures.”

Acute care in east Kent will “eventually collapse” without intervention, he added.

He said he had written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, inviting him to visit the area’s hospitals and calling for further investment.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the incident was “unacceptable” and the government expected the hospital to “take urgent action to address this”.

They said the government was “working at pace” to improve emergency care for patients.

Ms Fletcher said it was “sometimes necessary” to treat patients in corridors despite staff’s efforts, but that use of the cafe, first reported by Kent Online, “will not be allowed to happen again”.

The trust was ranked 101 out of 134 in a league table of trusts’ performance that NHS England published earlier this month.