Earlier this month (November 2025), the Member of Parliament for Ashford received a response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request concerning delays in patient discharges at Kent hospitals.
The MP submitted the FOI following reports of patients being treated in hospital corridors and even in non-clinical areas such as a Costa Coffee at the William Harvey Hospital.
According to the FOI response from East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT), there were 1,039 delayed discharges as of the week commencing 6 October. Many of these patients could have been discharged if adequate adult social care services were available locally.
The delays included:
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58 patients awaiting home-based social care services
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20 cases related to wellbeing or mental capacity concerns
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34 awaiting completion of other home-based care arrangements
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10 awaiting homelessness provision
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96 awaiting residential or nursing home arrangements still being processed
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118 waiting for residential or nursing home spaces to become available
These figures do not include patients under the care of the Kent and Medway Partnership Trust (KMPT), where 61 patients — around one third of mental health beds — were delayed in discharge as of early October.
The Labour Government has invested an additional £20 million in social care grants in Kent this financial year and is undertaking the Casey Review. However, the review will take time to complete. Mr Joseph holds regular meetings with the Integrated Care Board (ICB), and other key local healthcare stakeholders. He also co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Adult Social Care, has been engaging with Stephen Kinnock MP, the Minister for Social Care, ahead of Baroness Casey’s findings.
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Sojan Joseph MP said:
“These numbers are far too high. Local healthcare leaders fully acknowledge this and are working hard to improve services. Frontline staff are doing an incredible job under difficult circumstances after more than a decade of cuts — something I saw first-hand while working at the William Harvey Hospital. There needs to be urgent joined up working between the local NHS Trusts, the ICB, and the local authorities to clear the backlog in discharges and improve A&E services for patients.
It’s clear from these figures that many of the pressures on our A&E departments could be reduced through better local adult social care. Ensuring patients are discharged safely and promptly would free up hospital beds and ease pressure across the system.”
ENDS
