麻豆约拍

John and Clare with the latest news, travel, and weather, plus stories from around Kent.

Just a few days after the Darent Valley hospital in Dartford was criticised for having low levels of staff on duty at weekends, the Head of the accident & emergency department there, Sue Symmonds, says half the patients who turn up should not be going to hospital in the first place.

Symmonds says many patients should instead be seen by their GP, a minor injuries unit or even the chemist. One health watchdog in the county is calling for a major information drive to make the different options available more easy to understand.

We hear from the Matron at Darent Valley hospital, Helen Buckingham, the deputy chief executive of the NHS Kent and Medway, and Dan Daley, a Liberal Democrat councillor who sits on the Kent County Council health overview and scrutiny committee.

Also traders on a busy Kent retail park have criticised the lack of a long-term plan to solve the area's infamous traffic chaos.

With Christmas shoppers about to descend on North Farm in Tunbridge Wells, the borough council has revealed some short-term measures it will be implementing in the next few days, to ease congestion.

And it seems there could be a bit of a shortage of Christmas trees this year, particularly if you like yours on the tall side.

Trees in excess of seven feet tall are in short supply because of high demand across Europe and fewer trees were planted a decade ago.