A hospital in Kent has declared a critical incident as all its beds are full.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust warned of an “ongoing and exceptional demand for hospital services” at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford on Monday and confirmed the situation had not improved on Tuesday.

Patients have been warned to only attend the emergency department for a life-threatening illness or injury otherwise they risk an “extremely long wait”.

“This decision has not been taken lightly. Our hospitals are seeing very high numbers of patients needing hospital care,” the trust said in a statement. “Beds across our hospitals are currently full and attendance at our emergency departments is extremely high, meaning there is very limited capacity to admit further patients who need urgent hospital care.”

Patients seeking medical assistance have been asked to contact NHS 111, their local GP, a pharmacy or urgent treatment centre.

People hoping to collect friends or loved ones ready for discharge have been asked to collect them at the earliest opportunity possible. The hospital is working closely with partners across the health and care system to safely discharge patients who no longer require acute hospital care and to reduce avoidable admissions.

Planned procedures and scheduled appointments are currently under review, the trust said, advising patients to assume they will go ahead as expected unless they are contacted directly.

A trust spokesperson 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 remains 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, both in terms of enabling safe discharges and providing support to keep patients out of hospital.”

In August, NHS England recorded a 92.4 per cent occupancy rate for general and acute beds in hospitals across the country. More than half of these beds (52.2 per cent) were occupied by patients staying for seven or more, while 31.3 per cent stayed for two weeks or longer, and 20.9 per cent for 21 or more days.