Fresh doubts over plans to move A&E services from King George Hospital in Redbridge to Queen’s Hospital in Romford have been raised after a damning report from health watchdogs.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) today published two reports based on unannounced inspections of Queen’s carried out in November and December last year.

And while maternity services received a glowing report, the CQC concluded that the A&E department was providing patients with ‘unacceptably poor care.’

In their report into A&E services at Queen’s, the CQC said

• People using the ‘majors’ area where seriously ill patients are cared for were waiting too long to be transferred to other parts of the hospital with five per cent waiting for more than 11 hours.
• Some people were being nursed on trolleys leaving them at increased risk of pressure sores, dehydration and falls.
• The ‘majors’ area did not have any washing facilities or storage for personal possessions, and didn’t offer privacy and dignity.
• Personal information was displayed where members of the public, could see it.
• There were not enough consultant or junior doctors in A & E.

Matthew Trainer, Deputy Director of CQC in London, said the watchdog would be placing a ‘legal restriction’ on the number of people admitted to the ‘majors’ part of A&E at Queen’s in light of the report.

And he added: "Put simply, there are not always enough staff to care for the number of people who are attending the A & E and not enough beds being made available in the rest of the hospital. The Trust has acknowledged this and now needs to put all its energies into putting it right.

Reacting to the news, Averil Dongworth, Chief Executive of the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) said: “We fully accept the findings of the Care Quality Commission’s report, and would like to apologise to any patients, carers and families who may have experienced poor care.”

While government plans to transfer A&E services from King George to Queen’s are on indefinite hold, maternity services are due to move to the hospital from King George in March.

And in a positive report, the CQC confirmed that maternity services were now meeting required standards.

The report highlighted that women are seen more quickly in the maternity triage area when they arrive at the hospital.

It said that said Queen’s has 321 midwives, allowing it to maintain a midwife to birth ratio that is better than the target for London.

And it found that 96 per cent of women giving birth at the hospital would recommend it to friends and family.