City MP Rosie Duffield has called for an urgent inspection of the east Kent hospitals trust following concerns over patient safety.

The Labour member for Canterbury and Whitstable has written to the Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, requesting he authorise the special review in light of three separate incidents affecting thousands of patients.

The first – as published on the front page of last week’s Kentish Gazette – is the revelation that a computer system blunder meant 5,000 X-rays have potentially not been reviewed by doctors.

The second involves an MRSA breakout at the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit at Margate’s QEQM Hospital in Margate.

Ms Duffield also highlights concerns raised by a coroner following the deaths of five people who died after suffering falls on the same ward at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

She said: “It is essential that these very serious safety breaches are followed up immediately by the CQC, as it is not clear that the correct lessons are being drawn from them.

“I hope the CQC will act immediately. The east Kent trust is failing to keep to national standards on waiting list times, most cancer waits, and speed of being seen in A&E.

“In addition, it is £30m in deficit at the end of the recently closed financial year, the local CCGs are massively in deficit, and waiting lists for elective surgery are both growing fast and are well beyond the 18-week benchmark set by NHS England.

"The east Kent trust is failing to keep to national standards on waiting list times, most cancer waits, and speed of being seen in A&E..." - Rosie Duffield MP

“It is plainly time that the Trust was inspected again and urgent action taken to remedy what seems to be a failing patient safety culture.”

Prof Baker is a senior figure at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which acts as the national watchdog for health services.

It was the CQC which recommended the east Kent hospitals trust be placed in special measures following a damning inspection in 2014.

Its last inspection, in December 2016, ruled the trust “required improvement” before it could be said to be “safe” and “well led”.

Ms Duffield said in her letter to Prof Baker: “I am very conscious that the trust has been through a difficult time over the past few years, with multiple changes of top leadership and interim managers in place, and with serious financing pressures, but it is important in my opinion that the CQC takes appropriate inspection action to kick start the changes necessary to radically improve patient safety at the trust.”

It comes as new figures reveal under-pressure A&E departments in east Kent are seeing a patient through their doors every three minutes.

The emergency units at Margate’s QEQM Hospital and the William Harvey in Ashford have treated 159,567 people in the past year – with 35% of them forced to wait more than four hours.

Both departments were placed under additional strain when as many as 700 patients a month were diverted from the Kent and Canterbury Hospital when its urgent care centre was downgraded last June.

But official statistics published on Thursday reveal small signs of improvement at the east Kent hospitals trust since the recruitment of extra doctors and investment in expanded facilities.

In eight of the last nine months of 2017 it was among the worst five performing trusts in England – hitting rock bottom in October.

But last month it performed better than 33 other trusts in the country – with its 68.5% hit rate of patients seen within four hours just 7.9% below the national average.

The gap was as big as 23.6% in August last year.

Despite the upturn, the trust still faces calls to restore an A&E department at the K&C for the first time since 2002.

But any hope of such a move rests on the outcome of the controversial Sustainability and Transformation Plan, which will overhaul health services in Kent.

The first of two options on the table would see all specialist services transferred to the William Harvey from Canterbury and Thanet and the K&C reduced to little more than a cottage hospital.

The second being considered is the proposal of local developer Mark Quinn to build a new hospital shell next to the current K&C site in return for permission to build 2,000 homes on nearby land.

The NHS would fund the kitting out of the new building, which would serve as the main hospital for east Kent.