A HOSPITAL'S struggling A&E department has been given a £1 million boost – as plans to close its sister site loom.

This week the Department of Health (DoH) announced Queen’s Hospital in Romford will receive a £1 million grant to help it meet A&E waiting time targets.

Queen’s Hospital managers Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) often struggle to get emergency patients seen quickly enough.

In February this year only 83.5 per cent of A&E patients at Queen’s were seen within the desired four-hour waiting period, compared to the 95 per cent national target.

But while the funding will ease winter A&E pressures at Queen’s later this year, BHRUT’s other emergency department at King George Hospital will not get anything.

NHS bosses have said want to close the A&E in Goodmayes and replace it with an “urgent care centre” by 2019.

This means patients in need of life-saving treatment will have to travel to either Romford or Whipps Cross in Leytonstone to get it.

But BHRUT’s chief operating officer Sarah Tedford said the health trust is “delighted” with the funding for Queen’s.

She said: “We will be able to make significant improvements to our Emergency Department (ED) at Queen’s Hospital as a result of this successful bid to the DoH.

“The redesigned, enlarged areas within the A&E will be much better for our patients.

“Walk-in patients will benefit from a new dedicated entrance to the enhanced urgent care centre.

“We will be able to increase the numbers of emergency consultants and GPs on the front desks to help patients as soon as they arrive, and we will be able to offer this service for longer every day.

“It’s a huge step forward and will help us continue to manage the ever-increasing numbers of patients we treat.”

Whipps Cross Hospital was another of the 70 sites across the country to be given extra A&E funding.