The inspection, which re-rated urgent and emergency care at the hospital requires improvement, found an abdominal scan being carried out without a privacy screen and an elderly person left exposed below the waist until inspectors intervened.  

Amanda Williams, CQC deputy director of hospitals, secondary and specialist care for Kent, said: ‘We recognise that in times of heightened pressure trusts will need to make difficult risk-based decisions to determine the safest place for people to be, but corridor care must not become normalised. Where a hospital does use a corridor or other temporary space, they must do everything possible to mitigate risk, keep people safe and ensure that their privacy and dignity is protected.'

Dr Des Holden, acting chief executive for East Kent Hospitals said: ‘The CQC's report is an accurate reflection of the overcrowding and corridor care the CQC saw in the department in February. This is something everyone in the trust has recognised as unacceptable because we know it has a significant impact on patients' care, safety, privacy and dignity.

‘This year, we have been working as a whole-hospital team, alongside NHS England and with our partner organisations, to end corridor care in our hospitals.

‘Thanks to the hard work of many staff, we now rarely care for a patient in a corridor and we are now focusing our work on eliminating all waits for patients outside a cubicle or bed space anywhere in the hospital.'