Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said he is “incredibly impressed” by the progress made at Medway Maritime Hospital.

The hospital has been in special measures for nearly three years but after its last inspection, chief inspector of hospitals Sir Mike Richards said it was now safer for patients.

Mr Hunt was in Medway on Friday to support the EU Remain campaign but he took time to praise hospital bosses and said Medway NHS Foundation Trust had turned a corner.

Asked if he thought patients were now getting an acceptable level of care throughout the hospital, he said: “We are not there yet but patients are getting looked after a lot more safely than a year or so ago. People of Medway can be very proud of the progress the hospital has made.”

Mr Hunt added: “I am incredibly impressed by the progress made. I feel they are really turning a corner. It has taken a while but I think change is palpable.

“There is a really good partnership with Guys and St Thomas’s hospitals and an almost entirely new management team. If you talk to the doctors and nurses, they think things are getting better.”

He met with senior leadership and clinicians and was given a tour of the changes to the emergency department, including the new minors unit. He was also shown plans for the next phase of the redevelopment which will help the hospital cope more effectively with the 100,000 patients who visit the department each year - it was built to cope with 45,000 people.

Mr Hunt visited the Lister Ward to find out about the trust’s newly implemented Medical Model from Dr Sandip Banerjee and Dr Richard Leach. He also spoke to senior matron Amanda Gibson about the Home First initiative – a programme that helps patients get discharged early so they can be treated at home.

On a visit to the hospital less than two years ago, Mr Hunt said the continued failings had been down to weak leadership and problems being allowed to fester.

“All those things shouldn’t happen but with the right kind of leadership, and it’s not just the leadership at the board level, it is the clinical leadership and the leadership at the ward level, then those problems get sorted out very quickly.”

Shena Winning took over as chairman of the trust in September 2014 and Lesley Dwyer was appointed as chief executive in May 2015.

Ms Dwyer said: “It was a really positive acknowledgment of the progress we are currently making. He was really pleased to witness the changes we are making at first-hand, and was very complimentary about our staff and the obvious hard work that has gone into the progress we have made so far.

"He is now seeing a very different Medway to the one he saw on his previous visit.”