King George and Queen's A&E waits among worst in country

King George and Queen’s Hospitals have among the worst A&E wait times in the country and are “getting worse”, a committee heard.

Just under three out of ten type one A&E patients were seen within four hours at the Goodmayes and Romford facilities, according to NHS figures for December.

The hospitals’ performance figures for four-hour waits was already at 44.6 per cent in 2019, falling from 82.8pc in 2015. The average four-hour wait performance for all types of A&E attendance was better, at 60pc, but still in the lowest seven pc of England’s 207 NHS trusts. At a Redbridge Council health scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, February 1, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) – which runs the two hospitals – was taken to task for its “abysmal” performance.

For Barking and Dagenham residents - the implications for those accessing those services, is a stark reminder of some of the negative experiences people told Healthwatch Barking & Dagenham about. In the worse case, one resident told us how they spent 15 hours in A & E.