Queen's Hospital in Romford's failings criticised again

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23246537

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A hospital is continuing to fail emergency patients almost two years after inspectors called for improvements, a regulator has found.

An east London NHS Trust must make urgent improvements to Romford's Queen's Hospital emergency department, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust runs the hospital.

The trust said it recognised that waiting times were still too long

Concerns about the hospital were first raised in July 2011, the CQC said.

During their most recent visit in May, inspectors found patients who arrived at the hospital by emergency ambulance were waiting too long to be assessed.

In April, one in 20 people were waiting 45 minutes, even though patients should be seen within 15 minutes.

'Failing local people'

The average waiting time for consultations with a specialist was more than three hours, even though the trust's own policy is that all patients should be seen by a specialist doctor within half an hour.

Occasionally, bed shortages meant patients were forced to wait up to 14 hours before being admitted to hospital, the report found.

CQC 's London director Matthew Trainer said: "The emergency department at Queen's Hospital in Romford is failing local people.

"This situation has been going on for far too long. Radical thinking is needed, led by the Trust Development Authority and commissioners."

The trust's chief executive Averil Dongworth said: "While I am pleased that [the report] acknowledged that improvements have been made with personal care and the way we look after patients, this does not address the larger issues of waiting times and staffing.

"We have been working tirelessly to improve the situation so that we can provide our patients with the best possible care.

"We will be working with NHS partners, including the Clinical Commissioning Groups and London Ambulance Service, to address the long-standing causes behind the demand on our services and our poor performance in responding to it."

She added that the trust receives about 110 ambulances each day, more than any other London hospital and almost 15% more than a year ago.