The Liberal Democrats say there are still too few hospital beds

The Liberal Democrats said Kent and Medway patients wait more than three months for treatment - a month more than people under the some authorities.

The party blames the situation on too few hospital beds.

But the health authority said the figures were out of date and waiting times had "improved dramatically".

'Underlying problems'

Spokesman Rebecca Sparks said: "The government target in the NHS plan is nobody should wait longer than nine months for in-patient treatment as of 31 March 2004.

"Kent and Medway is hitting that target and also out-patient targets."

Adding that the Liberal Democrat figures were "three months out of date", she said: "The NHS in Kent and Medway treated more than 125,000 in-patients and day cases last year and about a third of those were treated in the last three months of the year.

"It suggests to me that things have improved dramatically since the end of December."

Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "One of the underlying problems is that there are still not enough beds.

"There is still a shortage of staff and there are still constraints within the system which mean people are offered the prospect of going into the private sector because the NHS is still not able to provide the treatment we would expect."

The Liberal Democrats named Kent and Medway as the worst authority with an average waiting time of 3.39 months, compared with Birmingham and the Black Country, named as the best with an average wait of 2.09 months.