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00:00Local businesses are worried about the reduction of footfall across the Medway towns as parking
00:25prices have risen to nearly £3 for just a couple of hours in some car parks.
00:30That's right, there's also concerns for the longevity of the few high streets in the area and as well for the staff and retail workers who have to use the car parks on a daily basis.
00:39But the council say that it's a necessary move to fight financial pressures, while Finn McDermid went down to Rochester to find out more.
00:46Any kind of parking increase, as well as all of the other increase, including rates, is a bit tough to swallow.
00:56Parking prices have risen in Medway from £2.30 to £2.90 for two hours.
01:01And it's not the first time, with it having cost £1.70 to park at Blue Boar Lane in Rochester for two hours before the 8th of April 2024.
01:09Locals are worried for the effect it could have on the health of their high street,
01:12while businesses aren't just worried over whether customers will still want to visit the towns, but about how their staff will cope as well.
01:18Well, not only is it affecting customers coming into the shop, it's also affecting volunteers.
01:23So a lot of the times volunteers drive down and they park up and obviously pay to volunteer.
01:29The main thing that's causing an issue is the fact that obviously they're not able to afford to come down to help volunteer,
01:34which then leaves us short-staffed and the whole process of the shop and everything relies on our volunteers.
01:40Without them, we wouldn't be able to run the shop itself.
01:42Independent shops like Get Ready Comics fear for how it could affect the town's economy as a whole.
01:47Yeah, I think a lot of people are starting to use public transport, but ultimately, you know,
01:51I don't know the reasoning behind the parking charge increase.
01:55Everyone's costs are going up.
01:57It's just unfortunate that those costs are being passed on to the consumers,
02:01people visiting the high street and the shops themselves.
02:05It makes it very, very difficult to survive in a market like this.
02:09Some are also worrying the prices could affect Rochester as a tourist spot.
02:14Prices they pay over here is astronomical compared to what we don't really pay in Australia.
02:20It's a strange pricing structure, I guess, for the people that want to pop in to just grab something.
02:24£2.40 is quite high and then obviously you don't have to pay much more for two hours, but yeah, it seems high.
02:31I'm okay with them because I'd rather pay a little bit more and park closely to town and have a safer parking space.
02:35It's pretty convenient, so I don't think they're that bad, to be fair.
02:37Now, Rochester as a city has a lot to offer.
02:40It's got culture, history and plenty of independent businesses.
02:44But those same businesses do worry that if the parking prices keep increasing,
02:48they've already gone from £2.30 to £2.90,
02:50that they'll see less people parking in the town for two hours.
02:53And it could also mean just less people visiting their stores.
02:57But it's not just a problem here in Rochester,
02:59but even in the other Medway towns like Gillingham and Chatham.
03:03But Medway Council have stood by their decision,
03:06saying the financial pressure local authorities across the country are feeling is no secret.
03:10Unfortunately, this means some difficult decisions had to be made when setting this year's budget,
03:14including increasing parking fees.
03:16Despite the increase, Medway's parking charges do remain in line with neighbouring authorities.
03:20For locals, businesses and visitors to the towns,
03:23they say that rising prices are something they've become used to.
03:26And while many aren't happy about it,
03:27they're telling me they'll simply have to accept the extra cost,
03:30rather than hope for a shift in gears from the Council.
03:33Finn McDermid for KMTV in Medway.
03:36Health experts across Kent say long waiting times and overcrowding in A&E departments
03:42mean many patients are fearful of even seeking urgent hospital treatment.
03:46Yeah, well this comes as new figures show that 2,446 emergency patients
03:52needed to be admitted to hospital in Kent last month had to wait at least 12 hours to do so.
03:57Yeah, Medway's total, however, has improved,
04:00with 688 patients having to wait those 12 hours.
04:05It's first below 700 since October.
04:08Well, our reporter Kristen Hawthorne spoke to the public outside the emergency department
04:12at Medway Maritime Hospital to find out some of their experiences.
04:15Generally, I think they've been getting better.
04:18I think I've been in and out of hospital myself quite a bit over the years.
04:23Certainly the most recent experience I've had, I was in and out very quickly.
04:27That was a couple of weeks ago.
04:28And yeah, I think they are improving.
04:30I think they are pretty much improving.
04:32Brilliant. They're brilliant.
04:34The staff is brilliant.
04:36I understand they're getting better, much better.
04:38I myself experienced it a few weeks ago,
04:41and I went through very quickly, I have to say.
04:44Last time I went, I was there for quite a bit.
04:45I was almost there for, I think, six hours.
04:48And it was like one hour to see one person each.
04:51So it was a bit long.
04:54We can't be fearful because that's the only place you can go.
04:57And they are busy.
04:58They do their utmost, I'm sure.
05:01You know, and you see the staff running about.
05:03You know, there's no one standing or sitting or, to my knowledge,
05:07and what I saw when I was in there.
05:09So, no, I wouldn't be fearful at all.
05:11I think it's getting worse, actually.
05:14Yeah, definitely worse, because the GPs are sending you from the surgery
05:18straight to A&E, and there's just, it seems like every GP is doing that now.
05:23I can understand why somebody would not want to go to the NHS
05:26because of the wait times.
05:28And I can also understand why somebody may want to go towards
05:30a more private route of health care,
05:32because my mum has gone to that route herself,
05:36and it was a lot more smoother in terms of what happened.
05:39Little grandson was there a couple of weeks ago,
05:40and I think it was roughly about seven hours, and he's only six.
05:44So that's quite a long wait, really.
05:46We had a traumatic experience last year,
05:48and we had to wait a while to do with my mum.
05:51And we were waiting hours, and, yeah, it wasn't great.
05:54Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do,
05:55because the NHS staff, they're all understaffed,
06:00so there's not really anything you can do.
06:01However, something needs to be done higher up, you know, above our pay grades.
06:06We're joined now by Ken Rogers from Concern for Health in East Kent.
06:10Ken, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
06:12Obviously, those were patients and family of patients in Medway,
06:17in the sort of North Kent area.
06:19What's your reaction to that,
06:21being someone that's concerned with the situation in East Kent?
06:24Unfortunately, you have to examine why that we have all these people waiting at A&E,
06:29and why they can't get treated.
06:32The staff have absolutely been fantastic.
06:35Medical staff at A&E are fantastic.
06:37But you have to look at the root cause of this.
06:40And the root cause is that they can't get through to A&E
06:43because they can't get up to the wards,
06:46because there's people in the wards that can't get out home.
06:50So that's what they used to call bed blocking,
06:53but it's really called delayed discharge.
06:55So if you examine the real reason,
06:59is it because there's not enough staff in A&E?
07:01I don't think so.
07:02Is it because we can't get people out of the hospital?
07:07Possibly.
07:08But I think the biggest problem,
07:10and it's been since I can remember in 2003,
07:14and I was a patient for three days in the corridors,
07:18which is one thing that we have to stop.
07:20We have to stop people being treated in corridors.
07:22And the answer is that we need more beds.
07:26We just need more beds for patients.
07:28You can't accuse people of bed blocking.
07:31It's not the patient's fault.
07:33There is a reason for it.
07:35It's been the same for 25 years.
07:37I'm not sure what you do about it.
07:39But as I said, the answer is some more beds in East Kent.
07:44How much do you think the pandemic has to answer for this?
07:47Because when we're looking,
07:48we were speaking with our reporter Daisy earlier,
07:49when we look at the figures, 2019 levels are a lot lower
07:53for people waiting 12 hours or more,
07:56and now it's in the thousands for just one month.
07:59How much does the COVID pandemic have to answer for this issue?
08:04Well, I think you're probably still suffering from long COVID.
08:07There's many patients suffering from long COVID.
08:09But unfortunately, those two years that, you know,
08:14people didn't go to hospital so much, things like that,
08:16there's probably a lot of underlying health conditions
08:20becoming worse over a period of time.
08:23And I think it's just a build-up.
08:25I mean, obviously, population's increasing.
08:27We're getting older.
08:29The kinds of illnesses we suffer from are getting more complex.
08:33Yes, we can cure more people, but unfortunately, it's never-ending.
08:40The one thing that worries me at the moment, of course,
08:42is that the government, you know, in the demise of the NHS England
08:46and other areas are so engrossed on trying to cut staff and save money
08:53that I think they're losing the eye
08:56and they're not really looking, concentrating on the back of the A&Es again
09:00and what the problem's going to be.
09:01And I think it's just going to get worse over the next few months.
09:05You mentioned bed blocking a few moments ago,
09:08this term that's kind of propped up because of people who are in hospital
09:12who are safe and fit, ready to leave,
09:15but they can't for a number of different reasons.
09:18The stats show that there was 409 patients across Kent last month
09:22who count in those statistics, it counted as sort of bed blocking
09:27because they had nowhere suitable to go.
09:29What needs to change in order to fix that bottleneck?
09:33Is there something that can be done at maybe a more local level to help that?
09:38Well, I think you have to examine what you mean by discharge
09:44and how healthy people are.
09:46Two things are in hospital, so they're poorly.
09:49So you can have a normal person living in a normal house by himself
09:53that becomes ill, gets in the hospital and then isn't able to go back to that house,
09:59either that they need help during the day, they can't walk,
10:02they need handles on, they can't have a bath properly.
10:06So there's an area there that you can send a team out to do the houses up
10:10to make sure they can get in so they can live by themselves.
10:13Nobody wants to be in hospital and they can live by themselves and cope quite well.
10:18Then there's the other people that obviously need a care home
10:22and there's this thing called care packages,
10:25which means that the patient has to be assessed
10:29and in the sum of money by the Kent County Council, whoever it is,
10:33and put into a care home.
10:35That's another lot.
10:36So they are people, they're very, very important.
10:41But they're not, as everybody describes them, as well enough to go home, yes.
10:47But they're still sick people, otherwise there wouldn't be a problem.
10:50And it's that sort of problem we have to source.
10:53There are some fantastic organisations, Kent Community Health,
10:56that does an absolute fantastic job in trying to prevent people
11:00getting to hospital in the first place and obviously seeing them
11:03when they get home.
11:04But there is just some things you can't do
11:07and there's some things that people need really help with
11:10and that's why I say more beds so we can look after them.
11:14And Ken, how often are you hearing from people across Kent
11:17who are too afraid to go to A&E, to go to an emergency department
11:21for an urgent issue because they just don't want to be put in a corridor
11:26or be waiting 12 hours and are actually not being treated
11:30for something quite major?
11:31I think there's a lot of people in the same situation.
11:33The trouble is, if you need to go, you need to go.
11:37But, you know, when you talk to people and say you may be getting there
11:42and you may be on a trolley for 12 hours or you might be in there
11:45for overnight with no relations, sitting on a chair in a corridor,
11:52is that really what we should be doing in this century?
11:55All right, now, new figures have revealed today.
12:08We've been discussing on the programme long wait times for emergency patients.
12:14They faced some of them more than 12 hours, in fact, 2,500 nearly just last month.
12:20Well, to talk us through some of those figures in a bit more detail,
12:22Daisy Page joins us now. Daisy, what can you tell us?
12:26Yeah, so this is obviously a story that we've been hearing for months now.
12:29It's the top of Pond Kent Online, if you'd like to read a bit more about it.
12:32And it is all about their A&E wait times.
12:34Now, a Kent GP has said that many patients have been left fearful
12:38of seeking urgent hospital treatment and said that this is having a knock-on effect
12:42on local surgeries.
12:44Now, we can see next to me that these are some of the figures that have been released.
12:49As we can see, as we're looking at the last three months of 2025,
12:53so January, February, March, and we can see the chart actually shooting up,
12:57generally reaching 2,839 patients that are waiting 12 hours or more to be treated.
13:04But one of the months that we're actually going to be looking at a little bit more closely
13:09is March.
13:11So this was last month.
13:12And even though we can see it improving on the chart this year,
13:17figures still dropping down, March was the fourth worst month on record so far,
13:22with around 2,445 patients waiting at 12 hours or more.
13:27Now, this was 124 fewer than February this year.
13:32So we are seeing an improvement.
13:34But if we compare the 2019 figures to March this year, 2019, for the whole year,
13:47they had 134 patients waiting at 12 hours.
13:51Well, this year, just this March, we're obviously having over 2,000 patients.
13:55So that's just to show you, obviously, the rate that this has increased by over the years.
14:02And now, if we can take a closer look of March and get that up,
14:05we'll have a breakdown of across Kent, the hospitals and things like that.
14:10So once that's up there, we can see there.
14:13Hospitals, including QEQM, which is the Margate Hospital,
14:16and William Harvey, which is Ashford Hospital,
14:19accounted for 1,326 of Kent's 12-hour waits,
14:25the fourth highest in England, and 149 more than last month.
14:32You have to...
14:32Sorry, I apologise for confusing my numbers.
14:35Lots of figures to go through here.
14:38But we can see in Maidstone and Tunbridge,
14:40obviously, there was 25 waits for the 12-hour wait times,
14:45which, obviously, is a huge improvement looking across the board of all the hospitals.
14:51But there, we can really see the breakdown.
14:53And Medway, there, just at the bottom, with 688.
14:57So, obviously, some of the places are really shooting up,
15:01but some of them are seeing a drop in figures.
15:04One of the primary reasons, said for the long waits,
15:07is something called bed blocking.
15:09Now, this is where patients can leave,
15:12but they have nowhere to actually go.
15:13So, they're staying in hospital.
15:16It said on the last day of March,
15:18there was 409 patients across Kent
15:20who were forced to stay on the ward
15:22because they had nowhere suitable for them to go.
15:26And, obviously, another reason is for the sheer number of patients visiting.
15:29All their attendance in March fell year-to-year 2%.
15:33So, but it's still high figures of people going into the emergency.
15:38I mean, of course, we know.
15:38I mean, you can see from the graph,
15:40just even the one we've got here in the studio,
15:41the fact that it's dropping as we're coming out of the winter months
15:45might have something to do with it as well.
15:46We know that NHS obviously faces a lot of those winter pressures as well.
15:50But if you look at the overall picture, as you say,
15:52since 2019 onwards, since, well, really, 2022 is when it really spikes up.
15:57The situation is still quite shocking for some, you know,
16:01definitely compared to what it was pre-COVID or even during the COVID pandemic
16:05by the looks of this.
16:06Have we had any response from the East Kent Hospitals?
16:10I know we might be able to get one up if you haven't got it written down there.
16:12I know Ashford from William and Harvey,
16:16they have them been replying to Kent Online with their responses.
16:20Yeah, so NHS, we can get this one up.
16:23The NHS Kent and Medway says,
16:24NHS staff worked extremely hard during the winter
16:27to provide patients with the best care,
16:28but were under significant pressure.
16:30Unfortunately, some people waited longer
16:32than we would have liked for hospital treatment.
16:35They went on to say,
16:35while winter has passed,
16:36services will remain under pressure
16:38as we approach the Easter Bank holiday weekend.
16:41And they added that patients should be aware of their choices as well.
16:45They can go online to look at those local services,
16:48including emergency pharmacy opening times as well.
16:52All right, more on this story as we go this morning.
16:54Daisy, thank you very much for those details.
16:57A few couple of weeks ago, a few days ago,
16:59there was a local award show that probably some may have missed.
17:03That's right.
17:03KTV or Kent Television
17:05had their Young Filmmakers Festival
17:07at the University of Kent.
17:08With awards, screenings and even a red carpet,
17:11many young filmmakers went to showcase their work.
17:14Well, our reporter, Ethelie Reynolds,
17:15went down to the festival to chat a bit about the event
17:17and the importance of independent filmmakers.
17:21Recently, the Film and Television Awards season came to a close.
17:26But there is one more event here in Kent
17:28that may have slipped under the radar.
17:30You may have heard of the Oscars or the BAFTAs,
17:42but here in Kent, we have the KTV Film Festival.
17:46It's held here at the Golbenkin
17:47and it celebrates a wide variety of films
17:49made by students at the University of Kent.
17:52Many student filmmakers, directors and actors
17:55gathered to celebrate the achievements of their peers.
17:58The whole event was organised and put together by the KTV committee.
18:03I spoke with the station manager to get a better understanding
18:07of what the Young Filmmakers Festival is all about.
18:10I think it offers a place to show their creativity and their art
18:16for even the new directors, like this year.
18:18It's a place for them to show their creativity and what they can do.
18:23But it's not always easy for independent filmmakers.
18:27With 11 reboots coming out in 2025
18:30and budgets for filmmaking on the rise,
18:33I wanted to know why it's important to support
18:36those independent filmmakers.
18:38It allows for diversity in the industry, to be honest,
18:41because when we always expect the same big-budget type of films
18:46to be made by the same type of people getting those budgets,
18:49it kind of excludes people like us or smaller artists
18:53who you don't see all the time, who have maybe even better ideas.
18:57For low-budget films, there's so many low-income directors
19:00that are going to have new ideas
19:02that these big directors couldn't even dream of.
19:04After the red carpet and screenings of some of the films,
19:08the awards were handed out.
19:10Walking with Students took home Best Film
19:12and Ben Signieri took home Best Director and Best Screenplay.
19:17So when I was about six years old, I was obsessed with Lego
19:21and my dad downloaded a stop-motion app on his phone
19:24and so I just spent like two or three years
19:26making just hundreds of tiny little stop-motion videos of Lego
19:29and I just sort of decided I wanted to be a filmmaker
19:31and didn't change my mind.
19:33So, I mean, it's quite overwhelming to win these awards.
19:37I definitely wasn't expecting it,
19:38especially with the quality of their films.
19:39They're just absolutely amazing as well.
19:42But, I mean, I'm just really happy that people like to film
19:45and that it's spoke to them.
19:48After a promising look into the future of filmmaking,
19:51the awards were all wrapped up.
19:54Etalie Reynolds for KMTV.
19:56And she joins us now, our entertainment correspondent.
20:00We've actually dragged her in virtually on a day off as well.
20:04Etalie, thank you for joining us bright and early this morning.
20:07Start by explaining a bit more about what KTV actually is
20:10and what it offers students at the University of Kent.
20:14Yeah, good morning.
20:15I don't mind.
20:16I've got my cup of tea.
20:16I'm ready to go.
20:17But, yeah, so KTV essentially at its essence
20:21is the University of Kent's film television channel.
20:25But it is so much more than that.
20:27It facilitates a bunch of student creation
20:29and it can be anything from like a podcast-y type show
20:33to more long-form content like the short films
20:37that were shown at the film festival.
20:38They also work with a lot of societies
20:40and in the past they've had their own new show.
20:42But it really is just this whole thing
20:46to facilitate content creation,
20:48especially for students who may not study film,
20:51who may not be used to all the equipment,
20:53the lighting, the sound.
20:54It just gives everyone an opportunity
20:56to practice filmmaking and to get used to it.
21:00They also offer a lot of workshops as well to teach this.
21:03And, yeah, at its essence,
21:04it's just a great way for students
21:06to get involved in content creating.
21:09Very popular as well.
21:11I mean, so much so that they're able to host
21:14a whole awards every year, every season.
21:16So tell us what that was like.
21:18Tell us the type of stuff that was on offer.
21:22So there was a wide variety of content,
21:25anything from short films.
21:27They had the winner of their 48-hour film competition,
21:32the one that won that was a film called Conquer,
21:34a completely silent film.
21:36And I chatted to one of the people
21:38who were involved in the creation.
21:40Their name was Caleb.
21:41And they told me that it was quite challenging.
21:44A lot of it was improvised.
21:46And they had to work with no sound as well.
21:48But that was really cool.
21:49It was about a group of friends playing a game.
21:52And it was very intense.
21:54Additionally to that,
21:55a film called Walking with Students,
21:57which was like a mockumentary,
21:59took home the award for best film.
22:01And that was really funny.
22:02That had me chuckling.
22:03It was like a David Attenborough-style documentary
22:06about a day in the life of a student.
22:07So that was really cool.
22:09You can see that one on the screen now.
22:12Very well-deserved win, in my opinion.
22:15But yeah, there was a wide range of content.
22:17So you had this kind of comedy mockumentary.
22:20But then the winner of Best Director,
22:23Best Screenplay, and Best Score
22:25was the one you can see now called
22:27Iris and Azrael.
22:29And that was about a man who was very young
22:33and very early, diagnosed with dementia.
22:36So that was a drama.
22:37So it really went to show
22:38that you can create anything on a short budget.
22:42And it was such a great show
22:43of this independent filmmaking.
22:45Yeah, and how important is that?
22:47Not only championing these students making films,
22:51but also they are independent filmmakers
22:53up and coming, hopefully.
22:54That's what their dreams are.
22:55That's what they want to do as well.
22:57So having that platform to be able to do that.
22:59But it speaks to sort of that independent film level
23:02and here in Kent.
23:04Yeah, so we heard in the package
23:07a few of the directors talked
23:09about independent filmmaking.
23:11But just overall, it is incredibly important
23:13to support these independent filmmakers,
23:15purely because it is so difficult
23:17to get your art out there nowadays.
23:19There are so many sequels, reboots
23:21coming out by these big film companies
23:24who are spending millions and billions of pounds
23:27on all of this different stuff.
23:30And for independent filmmakers,
23:31sometimes that is not feasible.
23:33All they're working with is a small camera
23:35and a small team,
23:36much like many of these students
23:37submitting their films to the film festival.
23:39Don't forget to subscribe to your device,
23:41but it's also invaluable.
23:43There are so many people in the film
23:44that we have watched a documentary
23:45and we have a video of listening to a film festival,
23:46and we're going to see you next time.
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