In the face of an overwhelming surge in patients, the staff at Queen’s Hospital in Romford and King George Hospital in Ilford are working tirelessly to provide the best possible care under immense pressure. Matthew Trainer, the chief executive of Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust, describes the current situation as the “hardest winter” he can remember.
The two East London emergency departments saw close to 1,000 patients every day in December, setting a new record. At Queen’s Hospital, 51 patients were being treated on trolleys in the corridors, a heartbreaking sight that Trainer says causes him the greatest distress. “Corridor care is the thing that causes me the greatest anguish as the chief executive of the hospital and as a human being with parents and family members,” he said.
Despite the challenges, the staff are going above and beyond to care for patients in the most dignified and respectful way they can. “I know from the messages I get from patients and their families they recognise the efforts the staff are putting in,” Trainer said.
One patient, Cliff Mitchell, described the scene around his elderly father Roy, who had been on a trolley in the corridor since the previous evening. “There’s people everywhere, it looks like organised chaos to me,” Cliff said. “The staff shouldn’t be working in these conditions, patients shouldn’t be treated like this in corridors.”
The pressure is being felt across the hospital, including in the maternity unit, which delivered around 7,000 babies last year, making it the third busiest in the country. However, new parents Holly Chilvers and Sonny Butler praised the “absolutely fine” treatment they received for the birth of their son Landon.
At the trust’s sister hospital, King George in Ilford, an Elective Surgical Hub has been established to separate planned operations from emergency work, helping to reduce waiting lists. Former nurse Stuart Ayris was impressed by how quickly his knee replacement surgery was arranged, with the procedure assisted by a state-of-the-art robot.
While some challenges are being addressed, the reliance on corridor care remains a significant issue. Trainer has requested £35 million from the government to build a new emergency department at Queen’s Hospital, but he says the deeper challenge lies in finding ways to stop so many people needing to come to the hospital in the first place.
