An overwhelmed hospital was forced to turn its Costa Café into a makeshift ward for patients in an incident branded by health campaigners as 'humiliating'.

Images captured earlier this week show elderly patients lying on beds wheeled into the popular coffee chain's branch based at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

An anonymous relative of one patient being held at the café accused the East Kent Hospitals Trust, which runs the William Harvey, of 'leaving people to rot'.

Criticising the astounding decision to place patients in the re-purposed café, she said: 'It really feels like they've given up on the elderly.

'It's not the staff working down here - they're doing what they can, but this can't be right.

'Anyone with family or friends in here should be concerned. What does it say about the way things are going when they've even run out of room in the corridors?'

The use of non-clinical areas to hold patients appears, it seems, to not be a rare occurrence at the site, with one staff member overheard saying: 'Oh, for god's sake, they've shut Costa again'.

Ken Rogers, the chair of Concern for Health in East Kent, described the makeshift ward as 'horrendous', stating that it is 'absolutely disgusting for patients to be treated this way'.

William Harvey Hospital in Ashford was forced to turn its Costa Café into a makeshift ward in a situation branded by health campaigners as 'humiliating'. Shocking images captured last week show elderly patients lying on beds wheeled into the popular coffee chain's branch

He added: 'For patient beds to now be shuffled into the Costa café because there's no space left on wards or in corridors is horrific.

'It shows just how bad the situation is with the lack of wards and bed space in east Kent, which urgently needs addressing.

'For patients to be put into a café area is frankly humiliating.'

Mr Rogers is now urging East Kent Hospitals to place pressure on the government to secure more funding and support in order to prevent such extreme measures being implemented in future.

He is also set to write to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, demanding that he intervenes in the ongoing crisis.

It comes as East Kent Hospitals, which also runs the QEQM in Margate, found itself ranked among some of the worst-performing trusts in the country.

A new league table ranking hospital trusts on overall performance placed East Kent 101st out of 134 acute care providers last week.

In August, 1,311 people faced waits of at least 12 hours for a bed on a ward - an increase of 116 on the same month last year and the third highest in England.

A relative of one patient, who chose to remain anonymous, accused the East Kent Hospitals Trust, which runs the William Harvey, of 'leaving people to rot'. Ken Rogers, the chair of Concern for Health in East Kent, described the makeshift ward (pictured) as 'horrendous'

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One of the main drivers of such stark wait times is bed-blocking - where patients well enough to leave hospital are unable to be discharged due to suitable care packages or placements being unavailable.

This then creates a concerning knock-on effect in which an increased demand for emergency departments can result in longer wait times for those needing treatment.

As a result, many patients have been forced to receive so-called 'corridor care' - when treatment is administered in the hallways of the hospital.

Ashford MP Sojan Joseph described the use of 'corridor care' as an 'unfortunate and unacceptable consequence of a decade and a half of cuts to NHS services', demanding that it should be 'ended as soon as possible'.

He added that such change will only possible if there is a greater emphasis placed on community focused care, rather than care in hospitals, which he insists has been 'clearly recognised' in the government's 10 Year Health Plan for England.

As part of such shift, Folkestone and Hythe have been chosen as one of just six 'pioneer' sites located in the South East as part of the government's Neighbourhood Health Programme.

The national scheme will bring together medical and social care staff, alongside council workers and charities, to create 'neighbourhood teams' that can provide individuals with support and treatment for long-term conditions.

Previous pilot projects in Folkestone and Hythe have already indicated results, with A&E attendance for at-risk patients dropping from 223 to 33 in just six months at one scheme.

NHS leaders hope the new programme, receiving up to £10million of national funding, will help to ease increased pressure on hospitals by tackling problems earlier and closer to where people live.

It comes after the tragic death of 91-year-old Dorothy Reid, who refused to return to the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital (EQM) after previously been forced to wait 'in discomfort for hours' despite having a broken back.

North East Kent Coroner Catherine Wood concluded that Mrs Reid may not have died had she visited the hospital, stressing that the issue represented a 'national' rather than a local crisis.

Ms Wood added that there was a 'risk of future deaths unless something is done' to tackle both bed-blocking and long A&E waits.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: 'This is unacceptable and we expect the William Harvey Hospital to take urgent action to address this. All NHS trusts should provide safe, dignified care in appropriate clinical settings.

'This government inherited an emergency care system on its knees, but we are working at pace to turn the tide on more than a decade of neglect and improve care for patients.

'We are also strengthening plans to winter-proof our NHS, from 'war game' exercises to extra checks for the most vulnerable, to ease pressure on hospitals and ensure patients get the care they need.'

East Kent Hospitals was approached for comment.

Overwhelmed hospital forced to turn its COSTA café into makeshift ward