Two Kent hospitals have been handed millions of pounds to cope with an expected surge in demand for A&E care in the winter.

Medway's A&E unit has been given £6m for this winter after warnings it would struggle to cope.

And Darent Valley in Dartford has been given £4 million to cope with the rush on its strained A&E unit this winter.

But no extra cash will go to east Kent, where hospitals were put on full-scale alert in April this year during a crisis in demand.

Extra beds, doctors and nurses were called on at Ashford’s William Harvey, Margate’s Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Kent and Canterbury hospitals because of a huge increase in the number of patients.

The cash boost was announced in Parliament by the health secretary Jeremy Hunt and is said to be one of the biggest individual grants in the country.

Nationwide £250m is being made available this winter, including £62m to expand capacity in places like A&E.

Medway Maritime Hospital’s emergency department was recently declared out-of-date and understaffed in a review by the NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh.

The hospital’s directors have set up a temporary A&E unit while they carry out a major refurbishment in the Victorian building.

Chief executive Mark Devlin told a recent meeting: “The hospital continues to be very full. Our bed base is running at about 108% so we’re having to have extra beds.

“We’re working very hard to address this. Things are difficult now and will only get more difficult as we move back into the winter months.”

Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless praised staff as he confirmed the £6.12m grant in the House of Commons.

He said: “Hospital staff have acted with extraordinary enthusiasm to, as they put it, reboot Medway following the Keogh review.”

A joint spokesman for the NHS in north Kent - including Dartford, Swanley, Gravesham, Swale and Medway - said £10m would be available across the area.

She added: “It is well-known that both Darent Valley Hospital and Medway Maritime Hospital A&Es are extremely busy and that during the winter months, extra pressure is placed on all NHS services.

“The public can play a very significant role by ensuring that they use services such as pharmacies, their GP practice and minor injuries units for illnesses and injuries which do not need the specialist skills of A&E.”